A Christmas they won't forget
by ElvenMuggle
Summary: A Christmas story! Lily is furious when she and James get trapped under mistletoe together. Soon she finds out that the mistletoe is enchanted and if they don't kiss before December 25, then they are forced to kiss. But they don't want that...or do they?
1. December 1

**December First**

Seventeen year old head girl, Lily Evans directed a large group of people from different houses (who all just happened to be prefects) up several flights of stairs and several stories to the very tip top of Hogwarts, the attic.

Actually, it wasn't exactly what you would call an attic, it was actually just a very, very large room stuffed with thousands of all kinds of different things. And it didn't look like an attic. The floor was made of stone just like in the rest of the castle, the walls had windows, and the ceiling was high and pointed. Boxes upon boxes piled along the walls in different categories.

They started their way down the long hall and as Lily looked around she noticed that all of the decorations seemed to rest to her left and on her right, books, old trophies, yearbooks and large number of other things resided. Looking over to her left, she first saw the winter decorations. Lily had five prefects branch off to start levitating those boxes downstairs with a warning to be careful. Next, there was a huge section of Valentines Day decorations. They skipped right past that and onto St. Patrick's Day and then all the way into autumn decorations that they had just put back up here about a week ago.

Walking past that, they reached their destination.

The Christmas section was the largest section of all of them. Their was about ten to fifteen different very large stacks of boxes all labeled 'Christmas' in glowing red writing.

Lily placed her hands on her hips and inspected the large stacks. As head girl, she was expected to direct everyone in putting up the Christmas decorations and then taking them down again. It had been the same thing with the autumn decorations, so this time she was more confident she could do it. That is, until she saw the boxes. The autumn stacks were no where near the quantity or the capacity of the Christmas ones.

For a split second, she regretted sending the head boy, James Potter downstairs to clear a way for all of the boxes. But she immediately took it back. No, she would never regret sending James Potter away. If he came up here now, he would have his usual trail of friends with him causing havoc and then she would really be in a mess. Thinking about it, they were probably downstairs trying to cause as much havoc as they could with barely anyone in the castle. Today was a Hogsmeade trip day so they had the castle to themselves for a while.

With a sigh, she decided that she at least had to try to tackle one of the stacks.

"Ok, you guys line up and one at a time, levitate the boxes downstairs."

Everyone obeyed and shuffled into a crooked line.

"Fifth years, you get the smaller boxes, sixth years, you get the bigger boxes, and seventh years, you get the biggest boxes. Everyone wait until the person in front of you has walked at least seven yards away before starting behind them."

And so everyone started moving the boxes, following her orders as said. Once everyone was gone, she flicked her wand once and had a particularly large box floating along in front of her.

Lily made her way back down the long hall, being careful not to knock against any of the other boxes on her way. She had almost made it to the door when a tall figure suddenly blocked her way, causing her to immediately loose concentration and drop the box. She nearly fell over the box but caught herself just in time.

It was the head boy, James Potter. He grinned at her merrily, ignoring the menacing glare he was receiving. He acted as if he wasn't aware that she was trying to walk by. He didn't even look at her for a second as he reached up over his head, concentrating on placing something on the top of the door way. Once he had finished, he brought his arms down and folded them across his chest, leaning casually against the doorway with his grin back in place.

Lily thought she knew what he had placed above his head before she even glanced up. Lettuce. Why had he just placed lettuce above his head? She quirked a questioning eyebrow at him.

"It's supposed to be mistletoe," he told her as if he thought that she should already know this.

Lily nodded once. "Ok then, that's...interesting...Move."

She levitated her box forward slowly but he didn't budge causing her to have to drop the box again.

"Lily, this is mistletoe," he told her smoothly, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, "you know what goes on under mistletoe don't you?"

Lily sighed. "Yes, I do know what goes on under mistletoe, but this isn't mistletoe," she gestured to the lettuce above his head, "that's just lettuce."

James frowned at her. "Yes, but it is presumed to be mistletoe so therefore-"

"So therefore you must move," Lily interrupted him. She levitated the box up and straight at him, not intending to stop this time.

He jumped out of the way just in time, narrowly avoiding a collision.

"You know Lily," he called after her, "one of these days I'm going to have real mistletoe but I'm going to have moved on and you're going to be real sorry!"

Lily ignored him and quickly levitated her box through the quickly falling snow and back into the castle.

James Potter had been a nuisance for a while now.

They had never exactly been friends or even gotten along very well in the six years they had been in school together. James and his friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew (otherwise known as the marauders) had targeted her more times than she could count to perform one of their infamous pranks. Her hair had been turned green and spiky, her homework had been charmed to declare her love for Sirius Black, she had been chased around school by a group of Slytherin boys who had accidently drank love potion, her bed collapsed when ever she lay in it at night more times than she could count, and she had just recently found out that they had been writing love letters to Severus Snape that were supposedly from her for the past two years.

She still hadn't gotten over that one.

But now as head girl, she attempted to put up with their tricks better than she used to. Plus, with James as head boy, he had to be more discrete about his pranks, meaning that there were fewer and fewer everyday.

The entrance hall had about twenty five to thirty boxes piled high and all of the prefects sitting on the grand staircase.

Lily looked at them open-mouthed. Didn't they see the boxes in the attic?

"Excuse me," Lily called over all of the noise.

Everyone looked up at her with blank expressions on their faces.

"We need to get this done people, so will you please come down here?" Lily sighed and everyone groaned and stood up. She turned to a box and tore it open.

The box held a large assortment of Christmas tree ornaments. She pushed it aside, telling a Hufflepuff prefect to go ask Hagrid if he had any trees yet. The next box she opened was filled with jingle bells tied together with velvet ribbons. She pushed the box towards a couple of Slytherins and told them to have fun.

Before she could open another one, James walked in carrying a very large box in his arms. He set it down in front of her and grinned.

"Phew...That was a heavy one." he winked at her before strolling away to stand beside Remus Lupin who was also a prefect.

Lily rolled her eyes, and smirked when the inside of the box revealed long strings of garland. If Potter was trying to impress her, he was going to have to do better than this.

"Potter, help me sort through the boxes," she called over her shoulder before handing a box of bows to her best friend, Daniel Pish.

His six foot figure grinned at her impishly. He pushed his silky black hair that hung just below his earlobes back with one hand. "Having fun?" he asked her jokingly before taking the box under one arm.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, of course," she said sarcastically just as James decided to walk up.

She shoved a box toward him as Daniel walked away.

The rest of their day consisted of going through a lot of the boxes. They made it through about fifty small ones before the rest of the school decided to come back from Hogsmeade. They decided to stop and save the rest for tomorrow, Sunday, when everyone would most likely be in their beds resting their hearts out all day.

After taking the empty boxes back up to the attic, they made their way back down to dinner where the rest of the school resided.

Lily stepped into the great hall with Daniel looking for a place to sit. They decided on the Ravenclaw table (Daniel's house). She didn't have a lot of other friends, and only one close one, Daniel. He, like her, was also a muggleborn. They had grown up together--he lived across the road--and he had always been there for her.

Unlike Lily, Daniel hadn't been surprised when he got his Hogwarts letter on his eleventh birthday, having always known that his mother was a witch.

But Daniel was her only close friend. She didn't not have a lot of friends for a bad reason; she had never been raped or abused or anything like that, she was just a quiet person who liked to keep to herself a lot.

So they settled themselves in at the Ravenclaw table, Lily ignoring the glares she was receiving from most of the girls around them as she slid into the bench beside him. The glaring was normal though; Daniel was not a bad looking guy.

Over at the Gryffindor table, Sirius, Remus, James, and Peter all sat together, joking lightly.

"So what's going to be our grand Christmas prank this year?" Sirius voiced.

Every year they did their biggest prank of the year at Christmas time. It was always something very extravagant that had the marauders written all over it.

James shrugged. "I'm not sure...but it can't be anything too obvious that it was us again, remember this," he poked his shiny gold head boy badge that was pinned to his chest.

Remus nodded. "Let's see, last year we sent everyone a toilet seat for a present...remember they all had a good laugh before they realized that we had actually taken them off of all the toilets..."

They all snorted into their dinners. It had been quite funny until Professor McGonagall had caught them (for some reason they hadn't thought to not sign their names in the 'from' section) and made them put all of the toilet seats back on by hand.

"It does have to be extravagant though, this being our last year and all," Peter put in.

They all agreed. Yes, this year's prank had to be extravagant yet well hidden as to who was behind it all. Of course everyone would know it was them, but for anyone to be able to punish them for it, they would have to have some evidence.

They would think of something, they always did.

A/N: Oh my God, I just read that over and it sucks! I won't blame you if you don't come back but please do! It's going to get better in the next chapter, and longer. Thanks for reading, and please review!

**Next Chapter: They continue decorating the school, Sirius hits on Lily, and the marauders come up with the ultimate prank: The mistletoe.**

Thanks,

-Elvenmuggle


	2. December 3 & 4

**December Third**

Christmas shopping was a hassle. Or at least it was today. Usually, Lily enjoyed shopping, especially at Christmas time and for other people, but today just wasn't her day.

After working themselves ragged for two days straight, Dumbledore had given Lily, James, and all of the prefects special permission to visit Hogsmeade to make up for the trip that they had missed two days before.

So far the trip had been quite crappy in Lily's opinion. It was Sunday, and the only places open were the three broomsticks, the Hogshead, and the local inn down at the end of the road.

Apparently, Sunday was the day of rest in the village so all of the businesses were closed much to the aggravation of Lily. She was just about to give up on ever finding a place to shop until she noticed a tiny, red bricked shop on the corner labeled 'Minnie's Gift Shop'.

It was her only choice so she shuffled across the street and walked into the building.

It was as tiny as it looked on the outside. The shop was about half the size of her dorm but the shelves along the walls reached all the way to the ceiling and were neatly jammed with pretty much everything that Lily could possibly think of that might make a nice gift.

The only bad thing about the shop--the marauders lingered over in the corner, flipping through magazines and pointing and laughing at the people inside. Lily knew that soon they would get bored and move on, probably spot her, and proceed to annoy the living daylights out of her, so she turned to leave.

"Oh Lileee!"

Lily knew there was no point in trying to run; knew that they would follow her down the road until she finally blew up at them all. That was something that she had noticed about the marauders over the years; they loved a challenge.

She unwillingly turned, trying to hide the grimace forming on her face.

"Hi there," she muttered.

Sirius Black smirked knowingly at her and he strutted over to where she stood. Slowly, he looked her up and down, and making sure to stare at her more...womanly assets much longer than the he would the rest of her body.

However, he didn't get a very long look; Lily crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him heartily.

"What do you want?" She spat with a little more venom than she had meant.

Sirius continued smirking and leaned against a shelf on one shoulder. He flipped his chocolate brown hair out of his matching eyes and looked down at her, clearly amused.

"I was wondering-"

"If I would join you to the three broomsticks?" Lily cut him off, knowing full well what he was about to ask.

"No, I was wondering if you and I could-"

Lily cut him off again. "Shack up in a broom closet?"

Sirius laughed and shook his head. "Nope, I was wondering if you and I could-"

"Take a walk up to your dorm?"

Sirius frowned. "Damn, guessed again...how do you always guess at what I'm going to say?"

Lily stared at him incredulously. "Maybe because you always use the same few lines?"

Sirius paused, blinked, and then nodded in agreement. He was called away by James who annoyingly blew a kiss over in her direction before turning back to his friends.

Sighing to herself, Lily just decided to try and Christmas shop another day when the marauders weren't around. Besides, she thought to herself as she walked out of the door and back out onto the snowy street, it wasn't like she could ever pick out a present that would ever be good enough for her sister Petunia, who she did not get along with very well.

Petunia had been a very good friend and sister to her up until her eleventh birthday when she had received her Hogwarts letter. At first, they hadn't believed a word that the letter said and had totally ignored it. Lily still remembered the skeptical look her father had given it before he had tossed it lightly into the trash.

But of course, the letters had kept coming, finding every possible way into the Evans's house. Her father, furious, had marched up to the post man one day to give him a piece of his mind, but the post man was as baffled by it as he was, insisting that he had never delivered any messages to them of the kind.

They kept ignoring the letters for about a week before finally Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, arrived at their doorstep. He proceeded to prove to them that the letters were real, and that Lily was indeed a real witch by turning their sofa in a cat and then back again.

Her parents had been excited about the whole ordeal, but Petunia was very bitter about it, she called her a freak countless times and later that night, she demanded to be moved to a separate room away form Lily.

Lily was suddenly brought out of her memory when she entered The Three Broomsticks.

It was unusually empty save for half of the prefects that had also been allowed by Dumbledore to visit Hogsmeade for all their hard work.

Lily suddenly realized something--Sirius shouldn't have been in that shop, and neither should Peter; she couldn't remember them helping with any of the decorating that they had been doing. Dumbledore had only given permission to all of the prefects.

Shaking her head, and swearing to herself that she was going to confront them about it later, Lily went up to the counter and bought herself a nice warm butterbeer.

**December Fourth**

Lily had confronted the marauders about Sirius and Peter being in Hogsmeade when they weren't supposed to be. James had told her that the two boys had offered to help with the decorating later if they could come with them that day, and having the power as head boy, James allowed it.

So Lily made sure that they were helping the next day after classes and supper. They were up in the attic again (with only half of the boxes left) and the prefects had just started to levitate the boxes downstairs, following the same directions as before.

"Here, take this one," Lily levitated a medium sized box up toward Sirius who quirked an eyebrow at her suggestively.

"Why don't we take it together?" He asked, coming to stand very close to her.

Lily shook her head and waved him away distractedly. "Yeah, whatever--here Peter, take that one over there."

After sending the marauders away with their share of boxes, Lily eyed the still very large stack a little less doubtfully than the last time. When they had come back from Hogsmeade the day before, she had let them rest for the rest of the night. But when she stood below the gigantic stack they were to conquer, she almost regretted letting up for a night.

Sighing to herself, Lily levitated one of the larger boxes downstairs and into the entrance hall.

Over the course of a few days, the prefects had learned to take care of whatever was inside of their boxes. They would take out whatever was inside, put it up somewhere, and if Lily and James both approved, then that was the end of it and onto the next box. So far, Lily hadn't expected James to be cooperating so well, she had expected him to disagree with everything she that liked, but so far he had actually been nice to her, much to her surprise.

"Oooo, Jamie my boy, come look at this!"

Lily turned her head to see what was going on. Nothing that Sirius Black happy about could be good.

He was standing over his box, his face lit up in a bright grin. James sauntered over to stand next to Sirius. Upon looking into the box, his face also lit up.

Knowing full well that this couldn't be good, whatever it was, Lily cautiously walked nearer to the box, along with the rest of the prefects. She was horrified to see what was inside not because of the contents, but because of who had found the contents. Mistletoe. Tons and tons of mistletoe.

Before she could stop them, Sirius and James immediately scooped up the box and sprinted off up the grand staircase with evil grins on their faces, closely followed by Remus and Peter.

"Oh no," Lily breathed as she looked after them, horrified.

"That's right; nothing is going to pry something like that out of their hands."

Daniel was by her side now, also looking after them, even though they were out of sight now.

"Why do they have mistletoe in a school for kids?!" Lily turned to him with wide eyes. "What is wrong with Dumbledore?!"

Daniel laughed and shook his head slowly. "You think I know that?"

Lily shrugged. "Never mind," she said, returning back to her own box, "Whatever they think they're planning on doing with that, they better not have it levitating over every boy's head in the school!"

"So what are we going to do with this?" Sirius grinned, "Have it levitating over every boy's head in the school?"

Remus shook his head as he followed Peter, Sirius, and James into the boy's dorm. "No, something more creative..."

James and Peter agreed.

So they sat for nearly half an hour in a circle on the floor of their dorm, brainstorming. They all agreed on one thing however. Their Christmas prank would definitely revolve around the mistletoe.

"I know," Peter finally broke a long period of silence.

They turned to him expectantly.

"Why don't we place the mistletoe all over the school-?"

"Great plan Wormtail, but we're trying to think of something _creative_,"

"Sirius!"

Peter continued, now a little annoyed. "We could make it so that whoever steps under it is forced to kiss."

They all stared at him. Sirius blinked, James yawned, and Remus scratched his head.

Finally James spoke up. "What?"

Sirius shook his head slowly. "Wormtail, that's not a good idea..."

"No, just imagine it," Peter started, "you can make it force _whoever_ steps under it to kiss. _Anybody_."

Sirius's expression remained blank. "What?"

Peter sighed in frustration. "Imagine that one day you walking along and you just happen to witness say...Snape and Crouch stumble under the mistletoe together..."

They all jumped back and gasped in horror as the vision went through their mind's eye.

"PETER, YOU ARE MESSED UP!" Remus yelped.

"Get out of our room!" Sirius stood up and attempted to pull Peter up along with him.

"Guys, calm down," James stepped in between Sirius and Peter. "I think what Peter is saying is that this might be not just a prank on everyone, but also revenge on our enemies." James looked over at Peter. "Right? Please tell me that's what you mean."

Peter looked at them as if they were insane and nodded. "Yes!"

"Oh," Sirius and Remus calmed down considerably after that, sitting back down slowly, eyeing Peter carefully.

James sat in thought, running his hand backwards through his hair. "Once you think about it, it is a very good idea," he said slowly. "And not only can we get revenge, but we can also get some kissing ourselves."

Sirius's face lit up at these words. "I think it's a great idea."

James thought for another moment and then glanced around at them all. "Does anyone have any problem with it?"

They all shook their heads, thinking mostly of the kisses that they themselves might receive.

"Alright then...we'll place mistletoe around the school that forces people to kiss by...how about Christmas?"

Everyone agreed and then set off to start their mission.

A/N: That was better wasn't it? I hope so, I feel like it was...Anyhoo, thank you guys for reviewing! It was very, very, very much appreciated! Thanks to Queen Isabella, life sucks then you die 32, Inquisit, WeasleyWonder444, piggy396, Isolde Eris, and lilred-07.

Thanks for reading!

-Elvenmuggle


	3. December 5 & 6

**December fifth**

Only ten boxes left. And all they contained was ornaments and other various Christmas tree decorations. Lily mentally patted herself on the back for all the hard work. Now all she had to do was tell Hagrid to bring the trees up and they could decorate them and be done. She stared at the giant empty space in the 'attic' with a great sense of satisfaction. Only a few days ago it had been stacked high with a mountain of boxes and now it was empty.

The other prefects were just as relieved as she was. They all seemed more cheerful than usual. Especially the marauders who came back from Hogsmeade with arms full of bottles of butterbeer for everyone.

"I am so glad it's finally nearly over," Sirius grinned at them all.

Lily sent him a questioning look. "Black, you only helped for one day. What the hell are you doing here?"

Sirius mock glared at her. "I helped for _two_ days thank you very much!" He stuck his nose into the air and marched off.

James walked over and handed her a butterbeer. "You've _really_ made him mad now," he joked.

"He doesn't look mad," Lily mused, watching Sirius flirting with a Ravenclaw.

They stood in silence and watched everyone else talking.

"So...Lileeee...hows it going?"

Lily snorted into her butterbeer. "Potter, you don't have to talk, silence is ok sometimes."

"You can call me James."

"That's ok."

"I'd rather you call me James."

"That's ok."

"Please call me James."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't feel like it. Plus, I've called you Potter for so long, it feels like that's your name."

"That is my name."

"That's not what I meant."

James grinned at her. "What did you mean?"

"What?" Lily looked at him suspiciously. "Why are you smiling at me?"

He shrugged. "No reason. How come? You like it?"

Lily ignored him and sipped on her butterbeer while watching Sirius talking to a Hufflepuff. What happened to the Ravenclaw?

Once they were done with their butterbeers, Lily and James trudged through the lightly falling snow down to Hagrid's hut where he stood waiting with nine huge Christmas trees at his side

Lily jumped when James's voice whispered in her ear. "How did he know we were coming? Isn't that a little creepy?"

Lily shrugged away from him, mostly because his breath was tickling her neck, but also because she didn't trust him being so close to her. "Potter, Hagrid is anything but scary, look at him!" They both looked forward to where he stood beaming at them all, not in the least creepy. "And I reckon he must have seen us coming."

"Ready fer the trees I reckon?" Hagrid asked when they had finally reached him.

"Yep, and I figured James and I could get another one with our wands."

"Fine by me. Here, lemme, get that one," Hagrid grabbed the largest tree and hoisted it onto his shoulder.

It only took twenty minutes for them to get all of the trees into the castle, and then another twenty on deciding where they should all go. They finally decided on one for each corner of the great hall, one for each common room, and the largest one for the center of the entrance hall.

But it took at least two hours to decorate them all. Even though it was fun, everyone was relieved when they were finally finished.

**December sixth**

"OUCH! Peter watch it!"

"Sirius, you're walking on my feet!"

"Well sorry Remus, it's not my fault, Peter keeps pushing me!"

"I am half-way out from under the cloak, I'm trying to get you to move over!"

"Shut up Peter!"

"Why don't all of shut up now!" James's voice echoed throughout the dark, empty hallway.

The marauders had enchanted the mistletoe so that whoever stepped under it would be forced to kiss, but had waited to put it up until late the next night when everyone had gone to bed...obviously.

"Well listen at Mr. Head boy all the sudden being really...mean."

"Sirius that was lame--and I'm trying not to get caught!"

As soon as the words had left his mouth, the caretaker, Argus Filch swung into empty hallway with a lantern in one arm and his kitten in the other. He looked around wildly with wide eyes and even took a sniff at the air.

"I know you're in here!" He called.

The marauders quietly inched their way to the wall and stood as still as possible. Filch slowly started his way down the long hall, swinging his lantern into the shadows as he went.

The kitten that he had gotten a week before was set down at his side and seemed to be searching for the marauders also, curiously following after the caretaker.

The boys quietly inched their way down the wall and further away from Filch until they were able to duck into an empty classroom.

Filch must have heard something, because before he had even reached the door, he yelled, "I HEARD THAT!" and went racing away from them back down the hall.

"Well that was close," Sirius breathed once they were alone again.

James glared over at him, though he was sure that he couldn't see him through the dark. "Yes it was, thanks to you!"

"Peter was pushing me!"

Remus jumped in before they could start up another loud argument and have the caretaker return. "Let's do what we came here to do," he told them all firmly.

So they carefully and quietly went their separate ways to place the mistletoe all over the school. The halls, astronomy tower, and every stairwell they came across were decorated with the floating enchanted mistletoe. They avoided placing any in the great hall and the entrance hall in an act of mercy for themselves and the rest of the school. Being that there could be so many people in both halls at one time and the fact that you could never be sure who you might end up trapped underneath it with.

They finished around dawn and hurried back to bed; anxiously waiting for morning.

* * *

Morning time was Lily's favorite time of the day. It always had been for as long as she could remember. The first signs of the early rising sun peaked through the closed drapes next to her bed. She longed to pull them apart but didn't want to wake her room mates yet so she resisted her urge and slipped into the bathroom. 

Her pale face blinked back at her from the mirror, revealing the same amount of freckles she had had the day before. The same almond shaped, sparkling green eyes and dark red hair met her gaze, just as it did everyday.

The same thoughts ran through her head as they did every morning when she woke up and looked at her reflection. She wondered why she always looked so pale in the mornings, what classes she had today, wondered what she would have for breakfast, and then finally what kind of shampoo was she going to use.

Nothing was out of the ordinary, but for some reason, Lily felt as though today was going to be better than usual...

* * *

Why was there mistletoe everywhere?? All Lily had done was walk out of Gryffindor tower and was horrified to find the mistletoe all over the school. Well, she hadn't walked all over the school, but all the way down to breakfast that was all she saw. 

Except for in the entrance hall. She couldn't spot any in here, nor in the great hall. Those marauders...it had to be them, they were the last to be seen with them. She swore, if she ever found herself stuck under there with one of them, she was going to bite their lip, not kiss it.

Sighing to herself, Lily slid onto the empty bench at the Gryffindor table in the great hall. Only a few other people were awake right now, only about two other people and herself and it usually remained this way for another half hour, so it surprised her when Daniel slid in next to her.

His hair was in disarray today and he looked grumpy.

"You okay?" Lily asked him cautiously.

He nodded. "Yes," he rubbed at his eyes, "One of my stupid room mates cats jumped on my head."

"While you were sleeping?"

"Yes, that cat is demonic! And I swear, when it hisses, it's saying my name!"

Lily had to purse her lips to keep from laughing. She poured Daniel a cup of orange juice and handed it to him.

"I'm sure it's not, it's probably all in your head-" she stopped short when she saw the marauders making their way through the double doors. Now _that _wasn't normal. "What are they doing up so early?"

"What?" Daniel turned and saw them too. "I don't know...is that not normal?"

She shook her head and quickly looked away before they noticed her staring.

"I'm guessing they were up all night putting up all that mistletoe," Daniel said with a yawn.

"You think they put it up too?"

Daniel shrugged and reached for a slice of toast. "They were the last seen with it."

"That's what I thought..."

The marauders sat down at the other end of the table, but Lily couldn't help but notice all through breakfast that James kept glancing over in their direction. Like Daniel, he was looking grumpy too.

They ate their breakfast in silence and when the great hall was starting to fill up, they parted ways.

* * *

The first part of the day was an extremely good one, in James's opinion. Most of the students seemed to be enjoying the mistletoe at least. He had kissed two girls by lunch time and was more than eager for more. The mistletoe never lingered anywhere near the teachers (they had at least been smart enough to make sure of _that_) so they didn't seem to have any objection to it. The only objection that James had so far was that he had yet to run into his favorite redhead while the mistletoe was near. But he was hoping that that would change soon... Now thinking about it, he wasn't sure that he had even seen Lily out of the classrooms today. How strange... 

Lily however, was not having _quite _the same amount of a good time that James was having. After she had finished breakfast that morning, she had asked (more like accused) the marauders about it, but they had, of course, denied it. Grumbling, she had attempted to take it down. But every spell she tried simply would not work, so she had given up quickly.

She thought about just walking right under all of the mistletoe, and just ignoring it all...but somehow she didn't think it would work like that. The image of getting stuck under there with an ever-persistent Sirius Black or James Potter floated through her mind and she declined against that idea.

There were tons of rarely used shortcuts around the castle. So that's what she did all day. But of course it was hard (and very tiring) to be the first out of every class, find the correct shortcut, and then avoid the paths of the few other people who had chosen to use shortcuts that day. So when she plopped down at the Gryffindor table that afternoon at lunch, she wore an irritated glare.

She was inwardly cursing the marauders for existing when, speak of the devil, they walked up and placed themselves a few places down from her. She tried to ignore them, but James must have noticed her glare and leaned over toward her.

"Hey Lily flower, what's wrong?" he asked softly.

Though his tone caught her off guard, she ignored his question. "Take down that mistletoe." She demanded.

He smiled at her. "Love, I would if I could, but I didn't put it up."

Lily narrowed her eyes at him and asked, "Then who did? You dingbats were the last people that were seen with them!"

James looked over at Sirius, Remus, and Peter. They all shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders at him. He turned back to Lily. "We don't know. We responsibly placed the box back in the attic where it belongs."

Lily stared at their overly-innocent expressions for a moment. "So...if I went up to the attic right now, the box of mistletoe would be there?"

James's tongue darted across his lips, giving himself away. "Mmhm." he nodded and glanced over at the other marauders.

It happened very quickly after that. As soon as James looked over at them, Sirius, Remus, and Peter shot up out of their seats and raced out of the great hall. Lily stood up when she saw this, but James stood also and blocked her path.

"Where are they going?!"

James smiled innocently at her. "I don't know...I guess they're eager for class to start."

She glared at him and attempted to go for the double doors but he stepped in front of her, sufficiently blocking her path.

"Move, Potter!" She snarled at him.

"Mmm...How come?"

Lily could tell he was stalling, but she didn't know why. What were the other marauders doing that had them all so frantic? She was going to find out because she would bet her right arm they were up to no good.

She fixed her gaze behind James and smiled innocently. "Hi professor McGongall, how are you?"

Her plan worked. As soon as James turned to follow her gaze, she darted around him and made for the door. She imagined that everyone in the great hall was probably watching this spectacle with interest, but she didn't care.

She was also imagining that James was hot on her heels, but after she had climbed the grand staircase and swung around a corner into a corridor, she found that wasn't the case.

James was no where to be seen. But she didn't dwell on that for long, instead, Lily thought and realized her dilemma. She didn't even know where the marauders had gone. They could be anywhere...she had been talking about the mistletoe being in the attic and they had run off...they must have gone to the attic. Or maybe they went to the dorms to get a fake box of mistletoe? She finally decided on the attic, even if they hadn't gone there yet, that was probably where they were headed.

So she took a right up onto a staircase and onto the third floor toward the attic. She got all the way to the seventh floor when she turned a corner and found James leaning against the wall, finishing up on a sandwich.

He noticed her and finished chewing. "Ah, Lily, what took you so long?"

She stared at him. "How did you get up here so fast?"

"Shortcut."

"No, _I _took a shortcut, how did _you_ get up here so fast?"

He grinned at her. "A very short shortcut."

"What is going o-" She stopped short at the sight of Sirius, Peter, and Remus strolling toward them from the other end of the corridor--from the staircase that led to the attic. "I know what you're doing!" She pointed an accusing finger at them.

Sirius looked happy, Remus looked politely surprised, and Peter looked absolutely terrified.

James looked at her innocently for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "What are you talking about? We're not doing anything."

"Yes you are! You're acting all weir-" she spotted some of that damned mistletoes coming at them so she backed up a few steps. James immediately started grinning at her.

"Why are you grinning?" she asked him cautiously.

He motioned for her to look up. Oh no...Lily looked up to find that stupid, stupid mistletoe frozen between her's and James's head.

She looked back at James who was still grinning at her. He took a step toward her.

"So...are you going to kiss me, or should I kiss you?

A/N: Yay, I back! I'm so happy to be able to continue this! Thanks to all of the reviewers, and everyone who wished my poor hand well! Thank you all SO much for waiting for me, I really, really, really appreciate it.


	4. December 6 part 2

**December six **

**(Part two)**

Lily scoffed at James. "Um...Neither. I'm not kissing you."

James grin widened. "Yeah...That's what you say _now_."

"What is that supposed to mean?" She narrowed her eyes at him and waited for an answer, but Sirius, Remus, and Peter had reached them. They all stared at the mistletoe hanging over them for a moment before they all made a long 'oooooo' and started laughing.

Sirius nudged James with his elbow. "Good job, mate!"

"Yeah," Peter said, "Now you get to kiss her."

"I wonder is she'll let you kiss her now or make you wait." Remus pondered.

"Stop it!" Lily interrupted them. "This means _nothing_! I am NOT, for any reason, going to kiss him!"

"Aw, come on Lily, you stepped under the mistletoe, and that means you have to kiss!" Peter said.

"No, it doesn't! I don't want to kiss him!"

Sirius looked at her skeptically. "Oh shut up, you do to!"

Lily ground her teeth together. Why didn't they get it? Why were they being so stupid? Stupid marauders...more like the quadruple dingbats...For some reason, they didn't seem to be able to take no for an answer. "NO, I don't want to! And I'm not going to kiss him, no matter what; you can't force me!"

Everyone suddenly burst into laughter except for James. He merely smiled weakly at her.

For some reason, they seemed to find all of this very funny. Lily was quickly growing tired of them, and remembered that she had her free period next, time to study for that potions test... She turned to leave them when a loud, squeaky voice suddenly bounced off the stone walls around them, causing the marauders to grow quiet.

"If one refuses to kiss at the present time, one can decide when one wishes to kiss any other time from now until Christmas, or one will be forced to kiss at this time, December 25."

Lily looked up. The voice was coming from the mistletoe! Wait...WHAT THE HELL DID IT JUST SAY?

"Good day to you all!" And it sped away.

The marauders were quiet now. Lily didn't move. The words that had come from the mistletoe were running through her head. She was trying to process them. For some reason, her brain seemed to be working extra slow today.

_If one refuses to kiss at the present time, one can decide when one wishes to kiss_..._or one will be forced to kiss_...

NO. They wouldn't do that. That would be too cruel. You couldn't force someone to kiss you! Wouldn't that be illegal? She refused to believe that she had heard right.

Right at that moment, a large group of students heading for their next class came around the corner. The hall was starting to fill up and Lily couldn't even see the marauders anymore, so she headed for Gryffindor tower where she hoped they would be...

If what the mistletoe said was true...she didn't want to think about what she would do to the marauders. The only thing she was sure of though was that if what she had heard _was_ true, then nothing good could be coming the marauders way.

Lily sighed in frustration. She couldn't _believe _that she had actually backed up right under the stupid mistletoe. James was probably thinking that she had done it on purpose. Ugh no.

They had probably been planning on this all along! They couldn't just take no for an answer, they had to force you into doing something that you didn't want to do!

Everyone else seemed to be enjoying this though, she noted as she walked by a kissing couple. They were all idiots. Everyone in this school didn't seem to have a lick of sense...or maybe they hadn't found out that they might be forced to kiss if they didn't want to?

It had to happen sooner or later, no one in the school could be up for kissing their enemies, or someone they disliked, or maybe even someone of their own sex.

Finally, the common room.

The marauders, however, had taken one of their very short shortcuts and arrived in the Gryffindor common room a few minutes before Lily did. Once they had stepped through the portrait hole, Peter turned to them with a look of terror on his face.

"Guys, what do we do? I'm a little scared, I just remembered her temper! Remember when Sirius charmed her homework and she got so made she-"

"Oh God," Sirius cut him off. "I just remembered that." He shuddered and pointed an accusing finger at Peter. "It was _your_ idea! You came up with it! You and James are going DOWN!"

With that, Sirius turned and dashed back out of the portrait with Peter close behind.

Remus watched them go with an eyebrow raised. When they were gone, he turned to James. "James, what are you really going to do about this? I had a feeling this wouldn't go well if people found out that they _had _to kiss. She's not going to like this."

James sighed. "Alright calm down, but honestly, she's just a girl, how much harm could she possibly do?"

As if by some freakish coincidence, the portrait hole swung open right at that moment and Lily, looking ready to kill, stormed in, found James, and started for his direction.

"You're about to find out," Remus murmured. He turned and sprinted up the boy's staircase, two at a time.

James girt his teeth. "Wow, what brave friends I have," he muttered to himself. But upon seeing Lily's murderous look coming after him again he understood why they had run.

He had seen a look similar to this one many times before. They had targeted Lily more than was really necessary when it came to pulling pranks. Sometimes because it was fun to get a rise out of her, and most of the time, he was just trying to get her to notice him.

She wouldn't just _talk_ to him, nooo, she had to go being disapproving of all the fun he and his friends had together. Sure, most of the fun they had together involved inadvertently damaging school property, or setting dungbombs off underneath the Slytherin table in the great hall at supper time, but come _on_, what else was there to do? Nothing, that's what.

Lily finally came to a stop in front of him, hands on hips. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the back of the squishy armchair behind him.

He donned a bored look and tone. "What is it, Evans?"

"What did that mistletoe say?" She spit out at him.

Ugh...the moment of truth. Now he had to tell her. A few of the people closer to them had turned toward them curiously.

James ran a hand through his hair. "Um... it sounded like it said that we had too..." He broke off to try to gauge her reaction.

She looked just as mad as she did a few seconds ago, except her face was a tad redder. "Potter," she said in a low, dangerous voice, "did that mistletoe say that we _had_ to kiss or it would make us?"

Now everyone had definitely noticed them. There was no more movement in the common room. Everyone was staring in their direction and listening to the conversation with interest.

"Er...Yeah."

It happened before he had time to even think about stopping it. Lily quickly brought her hand down hard against the side of his face. There was a resounding smack and his head snapped back a few inches. Everyone watching gasped and some covered their mouths with one hand.

"God Evans, what is your problem?!" James rubbed his cheek, "It's just a _kiss_."

"Yeah, a _forced_ kiss that I don't want, and never did, I should probably give you a break, eh, Potter?" She replied sarcastically

James put on his best innocently hurt face. "I didn't put up that mistletoe! Don't act like it was me!"

A few people in the common room let out loud snorts, some people rolled their eyes. James ignored them and kept his expression clean, though he doubted Lily was going to buy it.

She was starting look madder by the second. Her face kept getting redder and redder and she kept balling her hands into fists. James watched these cautiously, not very keen on getting hit again.

"Don't lie to me!" Lily yelled shrilly. She wasn't even trying to be quiet anymore. "It's got your fingerprints all over it!"

"It does not!"

"Yes it does, Potter! Why can't you just take NO for an answer?"

"It wasn't me, Evans, honest." James tried for one more innocent wide-eyed look but this seemed to make Lily even madder.

"You...stupid, big-headed-" she was struggling to find words good enough to compare with how she felt about James at that moment. But nothing seemed to be good enough. 'Idiot' sounded way too nice.

James smirked over at her and that seemed to make her snap. James caught sight of her wand being pulled out of her robes to late. Just as he was reaching for his own, there was a loud BANG and he fell backwards onto his back. He felt his whole face start to tingle. Oh no...What had she done to him??

He could hear her stomping up the girl's stairs and then a door slammed shut. Everyone raced up next to where he lay. When they saw him, they all let out another gasp.

For some reason, Sirius was there, and when he saw James, he burst into laughter.

Oh no...This couldn't be good. "What is wrong with me?" He asked them in a panicky voice. That felt _weird_. Oh God...what had she done to him? And why did it have to be the face??

Sirius was laughing so hard, it was hard to understand what the girl next to him was saying.

"I think you better see for yourself," she started rummaging in a bag slung over her shoulder. Finally, she pulled out a small, compact mirror and handed it to him.

He didn't waste any time to flip it open and see what had happened.

"Holy crap!"

His face was completely upside down. His mouth was on his forehead, his nose was in the same place, just flipped up the wrong way, and his eyes and eyebrows were on his chin. EW...he looked gross.

James scrambled to his feet with as much dignity as he could muster while he looked so stupid.

"Right, thanks for the support, Sirius, but now I think it's time to go to the hospital wing."

A/N: Yeah, that was short because I had it added on to chapter three, but that was two long so I had to split it up. Thanks for reading and reviewing! Now it's my birthday today so please make me happy and review! )

Elvenmuggle


	5. December 8

**December eighth**

Lily twirled her quill around between her fingers as she barely listened to Professor Binns droning on and on about the history of parchment. Why would he think that anyone would enjoy this? Just the name of the subject was enough to put anyone to sleep, so why would you teach it?

Professor Binns made death look plain out boring. As Lily examined him, she noticed that he too, looked quite bored with himself and this whole subject. But of course, Professor Binns had never looked anything but bored before, so why should that be any different now?

Her own thoughts were boring her now. This lesson was _terrible_. She scanned the rest of the room. Everyone else was either asleep or doodling on their parchment, not listening to a word the professor was saying.

Only was person wasn't doing either one of those things. James, whose face had been repaired back to normal by Madam Pomfrey, much to the dismay of Lily, had his eyes locked on her.

A smiled started to slowly light up his features so Lily directed her gaze quickly back to the professor.

Hm...Why was James Potter watching her? The thought bothered her and she couldn't help but glance back quickly to see if he was still doing it. He was, and he was still smiling too.

Humph. Why was he staring her down like that? Probably just to annoy her. Yep. That was all. That was the only reason.

Seeing him reminded her of everything that had happened the day before yesterday. She had tried very hard to suppress it, but now here it was. She wanted to say that she had over-reacted, and maybe she had just a little, but if she could turn back time, she would do it again. No... If she could turn back time, she would probably have done that to all of the marauders, or maybe something even worse.

Except that she had received a detention already from Professor McGongall, she had no regrets. Nope, not one. Zero, nada, zip.

Still though, she hadn't planned out her revenge. If she was going to be forced to kiss someone that she didn't want to, then they were going to pay for it.

Knowing that the professor would never notice, Lily pulled her parchment toward her.

Him...well two things were in her head already. She scribbled them down on the parchment in front of her.

Number one: Prove that they were the ones that put up the stupid mistletoe. And Number two: make sure they see how it feels to have to kiss someone they didn't want to.

Ooh, this was going to be fun.

Fifteen minutes later, the bell rang. So Lily packed up her things and headed to transfiguration.

Much concerning the mistletoe had changed the school the past two days. The news of what everyone was now calling the 'forcing mistletoe' spread like wildfire.

No one was quite as enthusiastic as they had been about it all, including the teachers. As soon as they had heard about it, they had attempted to take it all down.

But, much to everyone's dismay, whoever had put them up (Lily felt comfortable saying the marauders) had put on about twenty charms that prevented removal, and even made up a few more charms of their own that the teachers couldn't figure out.

But professor McGonagall had been too smart for them. Unable to take them down, instead she had just moved them into the less used hallways and put up a series of complicated barricades against them so they couldn't get out.

Now instead of mistletoe floating in every hall way, there were just a lot of less-used hallways that were crammed full of it. Mostly only boyfriends and girlfriends walked through those halls.

Once everyone was seated in their desks in transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall immediately pulled out a sheet of parchment.

"Alright now, I'm sure you all know that Christmas is coming up, which means Christmas break," there was a small chorus of cheering but it stopped immediately when the professor sent them all a sharp, intimidating glare. "And I need to know who's staying and who's going.

"If you're going home for Christmas, sign this, if you're not, then don't. Lily, please hang this up on the Gryffindor common room bulletin board." She handed the sheet over to Lily who put it carefully into her bag.

Lily already knew her answer. She was staying at Hogwarts, due to her parent's decision to visit her mother's parents in Denmark.

The door to the classroom opened and James strolled in as if he was under the impression that he was right on time.

"Mr. Potter, how nice it is of you to join us," professor McGongall narrowed her eyes at him.

James sent her a charming smile. "Thank you professor, but don't worry, I have a note." He held out a folded up piece of parchment which the professor took with a suspicious glance toward him.

Lily looked around. The only seat left was the one next to her. Oh, great.

"Right," McGonagall finished reading the letter with a nod and handed it back to James. "Go sit down then."

As she had known, James headed straight for the empty desk next to her. He grinned when he saw her and sent her a wink that she chose to ignore.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and started her lesson.

"Today's lesson may be a little difficult for some of you, but I hope that you all prove me wrong...we'll be changing these cement blocks," with a wave of her wand, nearly twenty five cement blocks were suddenly stacked up neatly on t he floor in front of her desk, "Into feathers. This is going to be tough, so please, push your desks together and come get a block."

There was a sudden scraping of desks and chairs as everyone got up and starting moving around.

Lily looked around. She was at the end of the isle; the only person to push her desk up to was James. Ugh, why did it seem that everyone was trying to make her miserable?

But James had already dragged his desk over and pushed it up against hers and gone to get the block.

An ear-splitting crash resounded at the other end of the room. But when Lily looked over for the source of the noise, all she saw was Sirius and James looking like they were fighting not to burst into laughter, Peter Pettigrew, ears red with embarrassment, and McGongall, who was red faced with her hat crooked.

"MOVE THEM WITHOUT MAGIC!"

Everyone grumbled and resumed picking up the cement blocks.

James seemed to arrive back to Lily freakishly fast, too soon in Lily's opinion.

Once everyone had settled, McGonagall told them the spell and they set to work.

But James didn't seem to want to work as much he wanted to talk.

"So, Lily, how has your day been?"

Lily glared over at him. He sat there smiling and flirting with her, not knowing that she wanted to tear his head off. She _should_ tear his head off. No one found this whole stupid mistletoe thing funny except for him and his stupid friends.

Not even the girls in her dorm thought it was funny. Of course, this could be because they would rather be the ones having to kiss James. She should have talked to Daniel, not the airheads that she had to share a dorm with.

She hadn't thought their famous 'Christmas pranks' could get any worse after the toilet seat incident that one year. But yet, here she was, being forced into kissing someone that she barely liked. It was so _unfair_.

James wrinkled his eyebrows together. "Hm, guess not so good," he inspected her glare, "don't worry, I'll cheer you up."

"You're the reason that I'm upset in the first place, thank you very much. _Flanado react_!"

The block she had attempted to transfigure grew a touch smaller and sprouted a few small feathers, but otherwise stayed like it was.

James leaned closer to her to look at her poorly done job and Lily couldn't help but notice that a vanilla-like scent wafted over from him. It smelled nice. She only barely caught herself from taking another whiff.

"I don't think that's right," he murmured.

Lily rolled her eyes. "No, that's how it's supposed to look."

James chuckled and pulled out his wand. "My turn."

Lily took a step away from him. "Go for it."

James cleared his throat. "_Flanado react_!"

Lily glared at the cement block as she watched it shrink and sprout feathers very quickly before finally, it was just one, long feather. James looked around at her and grinned. Hmph. She hated to admit it, but Lily knew that that was some impressive magic, especially for a first time try. Judging by the grin that James was sending her, she wondered if he had been trying to impress her. If that was true, then beating her in a transfiguration project was not the way to go.

Professor McGonagall came over and held up James's feather for the class to see.

"Very good, Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans! Five points to Gryffindor."

"Actually professor," James interrupted, "it was all Lily, I only watched."

Lily jerked head over at him but he just nodded at her as if he thought he knew what he was doing. No, Lily didn't like this at all; she had bad feeling about this. She looked over at the professor who was standing there with an impressed look upon her face.

"Very impressive Ms. Evans," Lily looked over at James who was grinning at her like he had done her some kind of favor. McGonagall smiled at her, "That's wonderful, please; show the rest of the class."

This time, both Lily and James's head jerked toward the professor. "What?" Lily asked her quickly.

Professor McGongall repeated the request. Looking over at James, Lily saw that he wasn't smiling anymore. She heard a few people in the room start to snicker; they probably knew what had happened.

"Ms. Evans?"

"Right, ok..."

With a complicated looking wave of her wand, McGonagall turned the feather back into the block for her. "There you are."

Lily cleared her throat. Oh God...this was going to be embarrassing. She could already feel her face and neck burning. She pointed her wand at the block. Wait, what was that spell? All that was running through her head were loud curse words directed at James. A few people in the room started to giggle but the professor shut them up with a look.

Oh yeah. "_Flanado react_!"

Probably because she was so nervous, this time, the block reacted differently to her spell. He swelled up to twice its size and sprouted little white daises.

Everyone started to laugh and Professor McGonagall simply raised an eyebrow at the daises. Lily had never wanted to just disappear so badly. She was sure that she wouldn't mind if she just dropped dead right now. Her face felt like it was on fire. The thought of just jumping for the door crossed her mind.

"I'm sorry professor," Lily managed to say quietly, "I guess I just got lucky the first time..."

The bell rang.

In record time, Lily had her things back in her bag and was out the door, making for Gryffindor tower. The scene back in the classroom kept running through her head over and over again. Every time she thought about it, it just seemed to get worse. Stupid Potter! Stupid stupid stupid. Why why why why why?? Was he doing this on purpose? Did he really hate her that much?

She wasn't sure, but she was sure that she was going to make his and his friend's lives hell this Christmas.

Turning a corner, she ran smack into a tall, extremely unattractive Slytherin boy who glared down at her from beneath overly-thick, black eyebrows.

Lily pulled away quickly and immediately backed into someone else. She looked around. Ugh, Sirius Black.

But Sirius wasn't looking at her. He was looking at the Slytherin in front of them. The Slytherin glared back at him.

"Move, Black."

Sirius's lip curled. "Don't tell me what to do, Bost."

"Don't tell me not to tell you what to do, _Black_."

Lily rolled her eyes. And when she did, she spotted something that almost made her burst into a fit of giggles. Somehow, some of the mistletoe must have gotten out of McGongall's barricades because there was a single one floating toward them.

And looking back at Sirius and the Slytherin, Lily saw that they were still arguing, not even noticing the mistletoe coming straight for them.

Quietly, she slipped away. They didn't notice her, either.

Lucky for her, nearly as soon as she stepped away, the mistletoe zoomed right over the boy's heads and stopped.

She couldn't contain herself any longer when she saw Sirius look up and a look of horror come over his face. Lily threw herself into the corridor and ran until the giggles overtook her.

Suddenly, her day didn't seem so bad. What had happened in Transfiguration seemed miles away. She couldn't keep a smile off of her face when she thought, _'One down, three to go.'_

A/N: Yay, I got reviews! Thank you guys, you totally made my day. : )

Thanks to: **Paige**: Lol, ok, ok, Lily doesn't really have any girls who are friends, but I will try to fit a Paige in there somewhere, I promise. ) **hermy permy**, **Dude Wheres My Cheese**: Hm…You're going to have to read to find out! Thanks!, **MysterySilk**, and **Tanya**: Lol, don't worry, this will be a very happy cheery story with no hardcore.

Thanks everyone so much, and please review!

-Elvenmuggle


	6. December 10

**December tenth**

"I want to take the famn fings fown!"

"Um...What? Sirius, spit out the toothpaste and say it clearly."

James, Remus, and Peter were starting to get worried. The fellow marauder had done barely anything but brush his teeth and then gargle his mouth out with mouthwash for nearly two days straight. He had barely stopped to eat. He went to his classes but as soon as the bell rang, he was in the bathroom, washing his mouth out again.

But they couldn't get him to tell them what was wrong. Finally, they had backed him into a corner.

Sirius went over to the bathroom sink and spit out the toothpaste and immediately started to gargle his mouth out again. Finally when he was finished, he turned to the three impatient boys beside him.

"I want to take the mistletoe down."

They had wondered if it had something to do with that. James had actually hoped. He still remembered too clearly Sirius's great 'support' he had offered him when Lily had turned his face upside down.

James tried to keep a straight face and he could tell Remus and Peter were trying to do the same. "What happened, man?"

Sirius's face turned sour. James noticed his gaze drift back over to the toothbrush so he snatched it quickly. Sirius glared at him but didn't protest any further.

"Sirius, what happened?" Remus asked this time.

"I..." Sirius broke off and leaned on the bathroom sink and placed his face in his hands. "It was terrible!" he wailed.

They were all quiet for a moment before James realized that he wasn't going to answer unless they pushed it out of him.

"Sirius?"

Sirius looked at them from between his fingers. "What?"

"You know what!" James snapped. This was seriously starting to get annoying. Whatever had happened couldn't have been _that_ bad. "What happened?" He tried a softer tone this time.

"Well..."Sirius started slowly, "...You know that guy...from Slytherin...Bost?"

They all nodded.

"Yeah...well the other day I-" he broke off and shuddered. "Um--It's all Evan's fault!"

Now that was something they had only barely pondered. Lily had looked noticeably happier the last two days while Sirius had turned into some kind of crazy man with a phobia of a dirty mouth.

"Lily? What did she do?" Remus asked.

"She...she..." Sirius whimpered into his hands.

"Sirius spit it out!"

"Oh God...I kissed Bost!"

The bathroom was very quiet for a moment. James dearly hoped that the other people in the dorms had heard that; really, there was no way they couldn't have since Sirius had screamed it out so loud.

They all stared at Sirius's glare, all trying to keep the images out of their heads. Finally, they couldn't stand it anymore. They all burst into laughter. At least Remus had the courtesy to take it in the other room, but James and Peter stayed where they were.

Of course, this was the reason that Sirius hadn't told them any sooner. He knew that this was exactly what would happen. He watched James start to lean on the wall for support, one arm around his torso.

"What are you laughing at, chuckles?" He yelled over at him.

"You!" James yelled back.

"Hey, at least I'm not the one who had a wet dream about McGongall!"

The room went quiet for another moment. Peter's mouth sat hanging open while James and Sirius glared at each other. Remus burst out laughing in the next room and came stumbling in.

"_What?_" Peter and Remus chorused together.

Sirius nodded. "Yes, LAST MONTH."

Peter and Remus started laughing again but Sirius and James kept glaring at each other.

"Hey Sirius," James started, "Unless Bost used his tongue on you, you should be scrubbing your lips, not your teeth."

Sirius paled. "Oh God!" He immediately grabbed a washcloth and ran it under some hot water. This only caused the other boys to continue their laughing again.

"Sirius!" Remus gasped from the floor, "Why don't you just use a cleansing charm?"

Sirius blushed again; he looked like he hadn't even thought of this. He glared over at them. "Shut up," he muttered before bringing his wand to his lips.

Something that Lily was absolutely sure of was that there was a counter curse for every spell. What she didn't know, (and what she wanted to know most) was the counter curse for the spell that was going to force her to kiss James.

Some of the people in the school called her crazy for not wanting to kiss James, most of the people in the school told her to just get over it and kiss him already.

But Lily saw things differently. This was not right. This was not moral! They shouldn't get away with this. They put up that mistletoe trying to force people into kissing, whether they liked who they landed under there with or not! They were trying to force people to do what they didn't want to do. And she was NOT going to just pucker up and kiss James Potter.

She felt like she had gone through half of the library already and she hadn't come up with anything about forced kissing. The only thing that came to her mind when she thought of a spell like that was the imperious curse. No, they wouldn't go _that_ far, of that, she was sure.

Since eight this morning, Lily had been searching the library for something that could clue her in to this stupid spell.

What she was starting to suspect, (and what she feared) was that the marauders might have made this spell up. If they had, then she would have to go to them and ask, and they would never tell.

With a frustrated sigh, Lily slammed her current book shut, receiving a sharp look from Madam Pince. Her stomach started to rumble, and when she checked the clock on the wall, she noticed that it was nearly lunchtime now.

She didn't want to give up, and she wasn't going to either. Just a quick lunch break, and then she would come back. She pushed her chair way from the table and quickly found the book's spot on the shelf.

It was no time before she was out in the stone halls making her way down to the great hall. Everything seemed normal halfway down, the snow was falling outside the window, the suits of armor were singing their Christmas carols, and everything was pretty quiet.

It wasn't until she got to the fourth floor that she realized that something was wrong.

A group of third year Ravenclaws came running past her, charging up the stairs hurriedly. They all looked panicked.

"What's wrong?" Lily called after them, but they must not have heard her because they kept running.

She looked around to find more students running at her. Only one boy noticed her standing there looking confused.

"Run!" he yelled at her.

"Why? What's going on?"

But a loud BOOM drowned out his answer and scared him into running after his friends.

Lily immediately dropped her bag, drew her wand, and raced down the corridor. A large crowd of students came at her from the other end. They all looked terrified. Another loud boom echoed around the halls and a few people screamed.

Lily pushed her way through the crowd and swung around the corner. She almost screamed with terror when she saw it. It was clear that something had gone terribly wrong.

The hall was crammed full, from the high towering ceiling, to the stone floor with mistletoe. And that wasn't even the worst of it. Every time two pieces of the mistletoe touched it emitted a loud BOOM and about twenty more came into existence.

Lily felt her mouth hanging open as she stared at the towering mistletoe floating closer to her. There was no doubt in her mind: the marauders did this. This seemed like just their thing; a giant mess someone would have to clean up, and total chaos and confusion seemed right up their alley. There was no telling how much of this mess there was in the rest of the school, but Lily was betting that it wasn't pretty.

But what bothered her the most was that she couldn't help to bring these things down. She knew this spell, at least she had heard of it, and she knew that she hadn't learned it yet. She didn't even know the incantation. This was something that the teachers had to take care of.

Students ran from the other end of the corridor behind her. They were all looking very panicked.

"You better run!" One of the yelled at her as she passed. "There's more coming!"

She wanted to help, but she doubted that there was anything she could do; this mistletoe probably had the same protections on them as last time. She stood and thought quickly as students raced around behind her and the mistletoe floated closer toward her. Then an idea struck her.

"Lily!"

Daniel had been running past when he noticed her standing there. When she turned to the sound of her name, he ran forward and grabbed her hand.

"Lily, let's go, I know what you're thinking, but there's nothing you can do, they're all over the school!"

Of course he had known what she was thinking. He had known her too long. Finally, she gave up and went along with him. He was probably right after all.

It may be clear to some of you now that of course the marauders are behind all of this. Lily was right; this kind of total chaos was right up their alley of fun.

After laughing until his face was wet with tears, and his whole torso ached, Remus started to feel a little bad about laughing so hard at James and Sirius. So he decided to cheer them up. He showed them a few pieces of mistletoe they had left in the bottom of the box, and suggested making more.

At first, Sirius was totally against it, but with barely any persuasion, they got him to go along with it.

"So I was going through our charms book the other day, and I found an interesting spell in it," he told them with a mischievous grin on his face. "It was a spell for increasing a number of something...if I remember correctly, all you had to do was cast the charm on two things and then make them touch, and more will instantly come...It's a little advanced, but I think I can do it..."

They immediately set about this plan, with good results, obviously. Of course, they were smart enough to not be seen doing it. They stuffed themselves and the mistletoe under James's invisibility cloak and went to a more secluded corridor before increasing the mistletoe's number.

They hadn't expected a problem, but who ever does?

They had only planned on making about fifty or so to place around the school again, but once the mistletoe started appearing, it didn't seem to want to stop. And the biggest problem? Remus couldn't remember the counter curse. They didn't even stop to think about it. They immediately threw the cloak back over themselves and raced back up to their dorm, almost being caught three times because Sirius couldn't stop giggling.

"Well...that's probably going to be a problem," James said calmly as soon as they entered the dorm.

The rest of the boys nodded quietly.

"Yep," Remus said.

They all started to smile.

"It is kind of funny," Sirius said. "Plus, it might get me revenge on Lily."

James frowned. "Oh no, she's going to know it was us...she already hates me, there's no telling what she'll do after this."

Sirius clapped a hand on James's back. "Oh come on, James, she doesn't hate you, she just...dislikes you to an extent."

"Maybe we should take them down," James suggested, but the looks he received from the other three quieted him. "Guys...I want to share something with you."

Peter leaned forward eagerly. "Ooh, is it candy?"

James shook his head. "Um, noooo Peter, it's not candy." James turned more toward Remus and Sirius. "It's about...a girl."

"Lily?" The three other boys said in unison.

Though he was a bit taken aback by this, James continued. "Er, yeah, how did you know it was Lily?"

Remus chuckled, "James, it's quite obvious you've liked Lily for a long time," he stated matter-of-factly.

"Oh."

Sirius stepped forward and threw and arm joyfully around James's shoulders. "So, I guess you want us to tell you how to seduce her? Or at least get her to like you at all?"

"I don't want to seduce her, Sirius, I just want her to like me back," James replied.

Sirius nodded. "Oh, ok...well maybe you should stop acting like such a pompous ass."

"Sirius!"

"What!? It's true, you act like a baboons butt when you're around Lily." Sirius grinned, "Try being more of a gentlemen."

"Yeah, he's right," Remus interrupted, "except you're more like a chicken. Chickens are pretty dumb, or maybe they're just ignorant...and they're pretty fast. Plus, they chase you."

James sent Remus a quizzical look. "How am I a _chicken_?"

"Well, one, you chase Lily around, " Remus started counting off with his fingers, "and two, it's clear that Lily doesn't like the way you chase her or the way you act around her, so that either makes you stupid or ignorant. And three...you're a fast runner."

James looked between all of the others as they all murmured in agreement with a look that clearly said that he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What!? I am not like that at all!"

Sirius started laughing. "Yes you are! It's so clear now, you are a chicken!"

"It is NOT clear!"

The other three started laughing again so James gave up and left the dorm. If they were going to be that way, then he would find a way to get Lily to like him all by himself.

A/N: Thanks to: **Dude Wheres my Cheese, Possibletanya, IluvvRemus, hermy permy, and Pappy's girl**. I very much appreciate the reviews; I'm very thankful. And if there's anyone else out there reading this, I would appreciate your review too! Lol, thanks for reading. )

-Elvenmuggle


	7. December 11

**December Eleventh**

For most of the students, the past day had been fun. The number of the mistletoe had swelled so out of control that the teachers alone couldn't destroy it all fast enough, so they had to call the ministry in.

All classes were of course, cancelled, so while they were downstairs cleaning the school of all the mistletoe, the students were relaxing up in their cozy common rooms, having food brought to them by the house elves, and playing game after game of exploding snap.

Lily, however, was spending her time trying to figure out a way to prove that all of this came from the marauders. So far, she had not had much luck.

The first thing she had done was ask around. She asked a few people if they had seen anything suspicious, but all she got back was the word that apparently, James and his mates hadn't been seen coming out of their dorm until after the mistletoe attack had started.

This of course, didn't cause her any doubts. Lily _knew_ it had to be them.

Sadly for her, they were very good at covering their tracks and it was going to be hard to catch them, but they were human, (at least that's what she kept trying to tell herself) and they had to have missed something, they might even let something slip. Hm...that was a good idea...she could corner Peter later, he seemed like the weekest link.

Maybe some veritiserum? No...that took forever to make, and she wasn't even sure where she could get some of the ingredients.

"Hey."

Lily looked up from her cozy armchair and was met with a pair of hazel eyes.

"Hey Potter, why did you do it?"

James wasn't taken aback by her in the least. He responded calmly as if she had simply asked him how he was doing.

"Don't worry, I didn't do it. How are you doing today?"

Lily glared over at him as he settled into an armchair across from her

"Oh, I'm just dandy, how are you? Up to your usual crap?"

James grinned over at her and shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Um, I think you do."

He shook his head. "No, and I'm doing great, thanks for asking."

They stared at each other for a moment, James smirking, Lily glaring, until Sirius came over and sat down next to James.

"Hey _Lils_," Sirius grinned at Lily, knowing full well how much she hated being called Lils. He just kept grinning in response to her glaring that was now directed at him. "Some people are saying that you've been asking about us...is that true, _Lils_?"

Lily narrowed her eyes at the two boys in front of her. "Yes, actually, it is. I know what you did, and I'm going to get you into a lot of trouble."

Sirius and James glanced at each other before looking back at her. They both wore smirks.

"Ok, say it was us," Sirius said, "how are you going to prove it?"

"I'll find a way to squeeze it out of you," Lily said indifferently.

"Oh Lily, I love it when you talk dirty to me," James sighed.

Lily glared at them as she stood up. "You--you're just," she looked as if she was trying to think of the right words to say. Finally she just gave up. "I don't like you!" She snapped.

Sirius laughed next to them and started nudging James with his elbow. "Not like you can say the same about her, eh mate?"

James eyes widened in horror. He sent a scalding look over to Sirius who didn't seem to mind in the least. But thanks to the loud card castle of exploding snap cards that decided to go off just at the right moment, Lily hadn't heard Sirius's comment.

"What? Wait, nevermind, I don't want to know," and with that, Lily marched away from them to the other side of the common room.

As soon as she was out of sight, James swung his arm at where Sirius's head had been moments before. Luckily for Sirius, he knew James well and had decided to move out of arm swinging length.

"I'm gonna kill you Black! What is wrong with you?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Oh no, the girl you secretly love might find out!" He said sarcastically, "we wouldn't want that to happen!"

"I DO NOT-" James jerked his head around to make sure no one had heard Sirius's big mouth. "I do NOT _love_ her, Sirius, I've just liked her alot for a long time. That's it."

Sirius rolled his eyes again. "Oh come on, you love her!"

James balled his hands into fists. Sirius was walking a thin line. Anyone in the common room could hear him at any point now. Who knows, they might have already.

"Sirius, SHUT UP."

"Yes, Sirius do shut up please," Remus appeared looking bored with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"Oh god," James turned to him, "did you hear him yacking?"

Remus shook his head, "No, I just hear you yelling at him. I'm bored, let's do something."

"Oh I know," Sirius stepped foward cautiously, keeping an eye on James. "Let's teach lover boy here how to win over the fair Lily's heart."

At the glare he started to recieve from James, Sirius immediatly started backing away.

"Hm, actually, that might be a good idea," both James and Sirius jerked their heads towards Remus.

"What! I do not need anyones help with this, I'm fine," James snapped at the two of them.

Remus chuckled. "Haha, yeah, because you've done so well already?"

They weren't going to drag him into this. No way. James promised himself that he wouldn't let them. But no matter how much defiance he showed, somehow, fifteen minutes later, he found himself sitting up in his dorm with Sirius and Remus giving him tips on what Sirius kept calling, 'The art of seduction'.

"Remember what I was saying about you being a chicken yesterday?"

"Yes." Remus ignored James's glare.

"Remember how I said you chased Lily around? Well you can't do that anymore. Not with her, she doesn't like it. She's a human being James, not a piece of meat."

"He's telling you to be a gentlemen." Sirius stated matter-of-factly.

James nodded. "Right, except I've never done that."

Remus sighed and stood up. "Ok, pretend Sirius is Lily. He...or she...has just come from lunch and you've run across each other in the hall."

"Oh dear god." At first James thought that Remus must have been joking, but when Sirius started talking in a light overly ditzy voice, he started to worry about both of them.

"Potter, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be blowing up a toilet or something?"

Remus nodded approvingly. "Nice Lily impression! Ok, your turn James."

James looked between the two of them and sighed. This was his last shred of dignity. "Er, no _Lily_ I don't blow up toilets-"

"No, no, no," Remus cut him off, "nothing about toilets!"

James sighed again. "No, Lily, I'm just heading for the library."

Remus snorted. "Yeah, try to make that believable."

Sirius started fluttering his eyelashes at him. "The library? That's where I'm going, why are you going there?"

"I'm going because...I have a report to do."

Sirius started glaring at him. "Potter, you are not, I know what you're up to! You're going to snog some girl aren't you? That's what you and your friends think the library is for, right?"

"What! No! I like the library-"

Remus interrupted again. "No, James she'll never believe that!"

James glared at the other two boys. "This is stupid! _This_, "he motioned over at Sirius who was fluttering his eyelashes rapidly again, "is totally pointless, it's not teaching me anything!"

Peter chose that moment to walk into the dorm. "Hey...why is James yelling?"

"Hey Peter," Remus ignored his question and instead turned to him, "what do you think James should do to get Lily to like him?"

"Hm...well," Peter thought for a moment, "I think you should stop acting so cocky when you're around her...instead of flirting, speak from your heart, tell her how you really feel. Do you feel bad about all the pranks you've ever played on her?"

James nodded slowly.

"Well then tell her that." Peter concluded. "Oh, and by the way, McGonagall just came up, she said the castle is clear now, and they're about to serve dinner."

While the other two boys headed for the door quickly, James followed them slowly, dwelling in his thoughts. Maybe Peter was right...maybe he should tell Lily how he really felt. But the idea was terrifying. He was quite sure that she wasn't going to tell him that she liked him back. There was no way. Lily Evans hated him, everyone knew that.

But still, even knowing that it could never be, thoughts of he and Lily Evans together filled his head.

* * *

For some reason, dinner that night seemed to taste better than usual, and the students were more talkative. Of course, it was no mystery why the teachers looked more tired than usual.

Once they had finished eating they're dessert, Dumbledore stood up. A hush fell over the great hall as everyone turned to listen to what he had to say.

"Professor McGonagall would like me to say something before you all go back to bed." He smiled lightly down at them all. "She and the rest of the teaching staff wants you all to be informed that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. There is a time when all pranks or jokes should be stopped and this one went a touch too far.

"Whoever is responsible for this," Dumbledore's eyes flickered over to where the marauders were sitting trying to look innocent, "should feel very guilty for what they've done, and should know if they are caught, will be punished severely."

He looked back over them again, pausing for a short moment on the marauders. "Goodnight to you all, I hope you are all able to sleep with a guilt free conscience."

As everyone started moving around and moving out of the great hall, Lily shot a glance over at the marauders. They seemed completely unfazed by Dumbledore's speech.

She quickly looked away when James noticed her looking. One of the last things she wanted was for James Potter to think that she stared at him. Which she didn't do. Never had she done that. Never. Ok, maybe once in a while, but it didn't mean anything!

Lost in these thoughts, Lily didn't even notice that James had come up next to her. He leaned down next to her ear so that she could hear through all of the students talking around them.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"Please?"

He looked at her with such a sweet, doughy-eyed, puppy dog look that she found it hard to say no to him. She immediatly wanted to smack herself when she found herself nodding at him.

But it would have looked stupid if she had suddenly said no and stomped off, so she followed him out into the entrance hall. He led her all the way to the big wooden doors at the end and held one open for her.

Lily lifted an eyebrow at him but didn't ask any questions. Instead, she sighed softly and walked out ahead of him, turned around, and stopped.

James let the door close itself behind him. He walked a few steps toward her before stopping.

"What is it?" Lily asked. To her, James seemed a bit nervous, and that was something that she had never seen out of him before. He ran a hand through his har, causing it to stick up in every direction.

"I um..." James said slowly, "I just wanted to say that I'm er...I'm sorry."

Lily wasn't exactly sure what she had been expecting, but it definetly hadn't been that. Never, ever, had she ever heard James Potter (or any of his friends for that matter) apologize to anyone for anything. It was a bit...flattering to know that she was first.

"You're sorry? For what exactly?" Lily asked, sure that this couldn't really be happening.

"Oh you know," James looked down at his shoes, "for all those stupid pranks...and for not treating you with some respect...I know it was wrong, and I hope you will forgive me." He glanced back up at her.

"Is this a prank?" Lily asked suddenly. "Are your friends about to jump out and throw stuff at me or something?"

"What? No! I really am sorry, I just thought I should tell you that." James promised. "And I er...I wanted to-" he hesitated and glanced at her face; whatever he had been about to say, he seemed to change his mind quickly in those few seconds, "make sure I had the time right for that prefect meeting tomorrow...seven, right?"

Lily nodded. She wasn't sure what to say. And as James bid her goodnight, she wasn't sure what to think either.

A/N: Thanks to **IzaBella Pheonix, WhiteCamellia, Rider Arya Svit-kona, cali4me92, Pappy's Girl, wishfuldreams11:** I'm trying to finish it before Christmas, but I guess we'll see how it goes..., **and I luvvRemus **for reading and reviewing! As usual, reviews are **very** much appreciated, so please, do it again!

Thanks for reading,

Elvenmuggle


	8. December 14

**December fourteenth**

Over the past few days, things just got weirder and weirder. Frankly, Lily was freaked out. James was suddenly acting like a gentlemen. He was actually treating her like a normal, respectable human being.

He no longer went out of his way to show out when he was around her, or hit on her every time they were in the same room.

Suddenly, he was always nice. He participated more energetically in his head boy duties, and once he had even made her smile. He was suddenly much more enjoyable to be around, and Lily didn't even know why the sudden change had occurred.

She was sure that at any time now he was going to switch back to the other James. There was no way this could go on. It was too abnormal. The only explanation that Lily could come up with that made any sense was that James must have split personality disorder. OR, maybe he bumped his head? Yes, that would make sense too.

Still, no matter how nice he was, Lily was wary. This all might be another stupid prank, or, even worse, it could be a scheme to get her to go out with him.

There was only one person she felt comfortable talking to this about, who could give her a good, honest opinion.

"Hey Daniel," Lily plopped down at the table in the library next to Daniel.

He looked up from his book and eyed her. "Hey Lily." After he glanced at her, he marked his place and then set the book down next to him. "I know that look. What's up? And tell me before the match starts."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Quidditch comes before me?"

Daniel shook his head. "No, I said tell me _before_ the match starts, so therefore, you are first."

Lily laughed and shook her head. Honestly, she had been intending to finish talking before the match, she loved quidditch just as much as the next person.

"It's about Potter."

Daniel nodded. "I figured. He's been _weird_ lately."

"You noticed?"

"_Everyone's_ noticed; they're all talking about it." Daniel pointed out.

Lily nodded. "And guess what he said to me the other day." Lily quickly told him about James apologizing. "So...why do you think he's doing it?"

Daniel inspected her face for a moment before answering. "Honestly?" He asked. At Lily's nod, he continued. "I think...either--excuse my bluntness--he's trying to get in your pants, or he actually likes you."

For some reason, she hadn't even thought that James might actually like her. That just seemed too weird...If you liked someone, you wouldn't continuously torture them for several years on purpose just for laughs, right? You would be nice to them...oh God. No...wait...

"Or, he could be pretending to like me so that he could 'get in my pants'."

"Yes," Daniel nodded in agreement, "but I think only time will tell."

Lily sighed. "Sure...I guess we better go now if we want good seats."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Daniel stood up and held open the library door for her. "Gryffindors first; I should be nice, you are going to lose after all."

Lily rolled her eyes and pushed him out of the door. "Yeeeahwe'll see about _that_, Ravenclaw."

* * *

Since it was Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor, Lily figured it would look a bit inappropriate to be sitting with Daniel. Besides, Daniel had told her moments before that he also couldn't be seen sitting with the _enemy_. Lily grinned as that thought went through her mind.

So now she was searching for a good seat on the Gryffindor side of the stadium. She was nearly to the top when she heard her name being called.

"Lily!"

Lily turned toward the voice and was met with the familiar face of a prefect girl she always saw in the prefect meetings. For some reason, Lily could remember that she was very good at her prefect duties, that she was in Gryffindor, and a six year, and that her birthday was December seventeenth because she wouldn't shut up about it, but for the life of her, Lily could not remember her name. She had never been able to remember it, (though she had heard it several times) so she had always tried her best to avoid speaking directly to her.

So when she turned and found that it was this girl calling her, Lily was not too pleased with herself.

"Oh, hi there." Lily finally said.

The girl waved her over. "Come sit with us!"

After inwardly groaning and smacking herself, Lily put on a fake cheery smile and headed over.

The strange girl was sitting with a small group of other Gryffindor sixth year girls, who all turned out to be quite nice. And it turned out nicely for Lily, who quickly heard one of the other girls calling the mystery girl Paige.

Finally, the players started to march out on the field.

All the girls around Lily immediately started to argue over which boy was the cutest, immediately reminding Lily why she rarely hung out with a lot of girls. It wasn't as if _every_ girl was like this, Lily just somehow always happened to fall into a crowd of these kinds of girls. She rolled her eyes as they started talking about who had the cutest butt.

"Who do you think has the cutest butt, Lily?" Paige asked.

Ugh. She had been hoping they wouldn't ask her. So much for hoping. "Oh...I don't know; they all look the same to me."

All the girls starting giggling. "What do you mean?"

Oh God...she actually had to explain this? "Well you know," she started awkwardly, "they've all pretty much got the same parts..."

The girls giggling exceeded.

"What I mean," Lily interrupted, "is that I don't think that looks matter; it's the personality that counts."

"Yeah," one of the girls said, "but the looks sure help."

Lily made sure that the girl didn't see the sour look on her face when she turned away to watch the game that had already started.

She spotted James quickly flying overhead with the quaffel tucked under his arm, weaving in and out of the players. He dodged a diving attempt for the quaffel by one of the Ravenclaw chasers and everyone gasped as they nearly collided.

James wove around him and tossed the quaffel to one of the other Gryffindor chasers who threw the ball past the Ravenclaw keeper's head and into the hoop for a goal.

Grinning, James looked down at the crowd, and Lily couldn't be sure, but she was almost positive that he was looking at her. It wouldn't have been hard to find her after all, with the red hair. He grinned at her for a moment before racing away.

"Was he looking at _you_?" Paige said into her ear.

Lily shrugged.

"I think he was," Paige spoke again; "I think he likes you."

Lily sent her a long sideways glance, but she was already watching the game again and didn't notice.

Paige was only the second person to say that, but Lily was quickly getting tired of it, and was sure that she wouldn't mind if she never heard it again. It was just plain disturbing. She didn't like it at all. Not one little bit. Nope, not her. Ok, maybe just a tiny little bit, but it was only because this was a first for her!

The Gryffindor crowd started screaming louder than they had been a moment before, and Lily shook herself out of her thoughts just in time to see the Gryffindor seeker racing past with the golden snitch struggling in his raised fist.

Though she was a little pissed that she had missed the end of the match, Lily said a cheery goodbye to the girls and moved away from them with the rest of the cheering Gryffindor crowd back up to the castle.

As soon as they entered the common room, Sirius came essentially out of no where levitating three medium sized crates full of bottles and bottles of butterbeer.

"Party!" Someone screamed and immediately loud music started blasting from the walls.

"Here, Lils," Sirius handed her a bottle of butterbeer and moved away.

Hm...Should she stop this? Lily wondered as she eyes the crates full of butterbeer. Being the head girl, she really shouldn't allow all of this alcohol to even be in here, much less allow her peers to drink it. Buuut...she really wanted some butterbeer. End of story.

However, that wasn't the end of that night. For an hour, Lily drank along with the rest of Gryffindor, she listened to Sirius hitting on countless girls, she avoided James, and at one point, she even sat down with the same group of sixth years from the game, but got up as soon as they stated talking about that month's issue of witch weekly.

Once hour two of the party hit, it started to get a bit rowdier, and Lily took it upon herself to send younger students to bed.

By hour three, Sirius was stumbling over everything piss drunk and laughing until his face turned purple. He ran upstairs soon after that with a sick look on his face and didn't come back down.

By hour four, most of the students had gone to bed, and Lily was trying to figure out how to turn the music off, with no idea what she was doing.

At hour five, Lily had gotten the music off, and ripped the last remaining bottles of butterbeer from the left over student's hands and thrown them away.

The portrait hole opened and Remus walked in with a sullen look on his face.

"What's wrong with you?" Lily asked him.

Remus shrugged. "Nothing...I'm going to bed." And with that, he walked away.

Lily sighed and turned around. Great. The only person left in the common room was no other than James, and he was drunk.

"Potter, go to bed." Lily told him as she picked up and threw away some empty bottles from the floor.

"Lily," James slurred at her, "Lily, Lily, I love you."

Lily jerked her head over at him, causing a crick to form in her neck. She couldn't believe her ears. She really shouldn't. After all, James was drunk. "What?" She asked him quickly while rubbing her neck.

"You're so pretty, Lily," James slurred, "And smart, and so passionate about everything, and wish you loved me too..."

"You..._love _me?" She could barely say it, there was no way this was real. Either, it was a weird dream, or she was drunk too.

James nodded. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but shhh," James held a finger to his lips, "don't tell Sirius he was right."

"What?"

"Uugghh," James groaned and fell over onto the couch with his hands over his face.

Lily stared at him for a moment as he lay there. If she was wrong, and this was one hundred percent real, then this was definitely going to be a problem.

"Ooh crap."


	9. December 17

**December seventeenth**

Over the next few days, Lily avoided James at all costs. Every time she saw him, she ducked and hid behind something (or sometimes behind someone), dived into an empty room, or simply turned and walked in the other direction.

What he had said to her the other night made her feel way to awkward to be around him anymore. And Lily was pretty sure that he didn't remember it at all. He seemed completely normal.

However, there was one thing that Lily was pleased about, but it did come with a price.

That night when Remus had come in looking so sullen had asked him what was wrong, but hadn't found out until that next morning.

Apparently, during the quidditch match, Remus had been up at the castle placing the mistletoe around the school all over again. That was the good news. The bad news--Remus had been caught half-way through and had placed more protective spells that he had made up himself than he had the first time. So now, they were right back where they had started with the mistletoe.

Not only that, but Lily had heard that he absolutely refused to say if anyone had been in on it with him (which everyone knew was most likely), and he also refused to tell how to remove all the enchantments. All the teachers could do was giving him detention every weekend for the rest of the year, or until he decided to talk.

Now that Remus had been caught putting the mistletoe, Lily felt like she needed to talk to him and ask him a few questions about the stupid stuff.

It had been in the back of her mind for a while now. Did she really have to kiss James? Since this was new mistletoe, was that same spell still in place? Most likely, but she still felt as if she should ask.

It made her the tiniest bit mad to suddenly always have the marauders in the back of her mind. At night she found herself wondering what she should do about James..._loving_ her.

Her favorite solution was just to ignore it. But her mind (or was it her heart?) fought her. How many times would someone fall in love with her? This was something that everyone hoped for; it was something that everyone wanted. Everyone wanted to be loved in one way or another. Was it really something that she should be ignoring?

What if it hadn't just been the alcohol talking that night? What if James really, truly loved her?

If that were the case, then she didn't know what to do...no solution came to her mind; she _didn't_ love him back. She didn't even like him. Not one little bit. Not at all. There was nothing there. Nothing, nada, zilch, zip. Nothing at all, ever. Ok, maybe one tiny little spark. But it didn't mean anything!

Truth be told, it scared Lily. This was not something that she could look up in the library; she had to learn this all by her self. Hmph. Stupid Potter.

Right now though was not the time to be thinking of James Potter or anyone else. Right now, she had her hands full with getting her house packed up and ready to go home for Christmas.

So far, it had been a hectic morning. For some reason, no one had thought to start packing until this morning. Or so it seemed.

"Hurry up, you guys, the train leaves at noon in an hour!" Lily yelled up the boy's staircase.

"Relax," Lily jumped as James came around the corner of the stairs smiling at her, "They're almost finished."

Lily nodded and avoided gaze quickly.

"How have you been?" He asked before she could run away.

Lily fiddled with one of the buttons on her skirt without looking at him. "Er, I've been fine, thanks for asking." She said quickly, "Have fun at home, really. Merry Christmas; I guess I'll see you next year." Lily finally looked up at him.

James grinned. "Actually, I'm staying here for Christmas. Sirius is too."

Oh great, just what she wanted. Lily resisted the urge to groan loudly, drop to her knees, and scream WHY over and over again to the heavens. Instead she forced herself to smile. "Lovely."

When James's grin started to widen, Lily decided that it was time to go.

"Look, do you think you could take care of things from here? I want to say goodbye to Daniel before he goes."

James grin immediately fell and for some reason, this gave Lily's heart a jolt, and not in a good way. Of course, this had nothing to do with what was going on, it was simply because she didn't like to make anyone's smile go away. If you like to do that, then you're sick.

"Can I ask you something?" James said in suddenly serious tones.

"Um...sure I guess..."

"Its kindave personal..."James warned her.

Lily bit her lip. She didn't like the sound of this; she was quite sure she knew where this was heading. "Why don't you ask me and then we'll see if I want to answer?"

James shrugged. "Ok...Are you and Daniel...er, together?"

"What? No! Daniel and I are just friends, we always have been, we probably always will be; there's nothing to worry about _there_." Oh dear lord, did that just come out of her mouth??? She couldn't believe that she had just said that.

At least James looked happy now. His grin was back. "Ok, you can go; I just wanted to ask you that." He told her cheerily.

Lily nodded and dashed from the common room, fighting the urge to smack herself the whole way.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Evans?" Lily muttered to herself angrily as she walked quickly down the corridor.

Now _that_ most probably sent James the wrong message, and that was the last thing that she wanted to do right now. For now, Lily pushed it out of her mind; she would have to deal with that later.

Right now, she walked into the great and searched for Daniel. He was over at the Ravenclaw table talking to a few other guys, so Lily set her sights on Remus who she had just spotted eating lunch alone with the Daily Prophet in his hand.

As soon as she sat down next to him, Remus looked over at her with a very slight look of panic in his eyes.

"I'm sorry about the mistletoe, Lily, I never meant for you to step under it." He said quickly.

Lily grimaced as he reminded her. "Oookay then, apology accepted if you can answer me some questions."

Folding up his paper, Remus didn't look at her as he replied. "Ok, what do you want to know?"

"It's about the mistletoe...do I...do I really have to kiss," Lily sighed, "Potter?"

Remus leaned away from her while keeping an eye on her hands. "Er, yeah...it's new mistletoe, but the spell was never broken, so it's still there until it's broken."

Lily sighed again. "And it can be broken only by kissing him?"

Remus nodded.

"Isn't there a counter curse?"

This time, Remus grimaced when he nodded. "Yeah, well, about that...I made this enchantment myself...The kiss itself is the counter curse."

Lily glared at him.

"And I should tell you in case you don't know," Remus stood up and grabbed his paper, "either you kiss James voluntarily, or the spell will force you."

"Lupin! Why would you do that?"

But Remus was already half way out of the great hall. Lily watched him go in awe. He must take have taken some kind of track, because that boy could _run_. Good grief...did he actually think that she would have cursed him right here where some of the teachers could see?

Daniel slid in beside her at that moment, erasing Remus's impressive running skills from her mind for the time being.

"Since when are you friends with Remus Lupin?"

"I'm not," Lily replied as she grabbed a sandwich from a big platter. "I was asking him about that stupid mistletoe...apparently, it's true, I have to kiss Potter or it's going to force me."

Daniel shook his head. "Shouldn't that be illegal or something? That doesn't seem right..."

Lily quickly engulfed him in a hug. "See, that's why you're my friend. Everyone else keeps telling me to just kiss him."

"Well that's just stupid," Daniel said as he pulled from Lily's hug and attempted to fix his hair back, "I'd like to see them forced to kiss someone they hate, and then see how they feel about it."

Lily nodded. "Yep..."

Peering at her sideways, Daniel asked her something she hadn't expected. "You _do_ still hate him, don't you?"

Lily jerked her head at him, reigniting the crick she had given herself the other night. "Yes, of course! Why would you ask that?"

Grinning at her, Daniel said, "I know you, Lily Evans. Probably better than you know yourself."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Don't get mad," Daniel held his hands up in front of him, "I'm just telling you what I see."

Lily crossed her arms and forced herself not to start glaring at him. "And what is it that you see, exactly?"

Daniel grinned at her again. "You're not as mad about the mistletoe as you were. I would say that you just got over it, but it usually takes you much longer to get over something that has made you that mad. Remember when they made all of your homework talk about how much you supposedly loved Sirius Black?"

The memory of it caused Lily to grimace. The horror of it still made it feel like it was just yesterday. She remembered Professor McGonagall calling her up in front of the class to ask why she had done such a thing. Lily fought to push the memory away as she nodded at Daniel.

"Right," Daniel continued, "well it took you about two months to get over that, and in that time, you made sure that the marauders were caught at every single little thing that they did wrong. Now...you don't seem to care as much."

"Hey," Lily interrupted, "I got Black back; I told you about that, right?"

"Yes, but that's _all_ you've done. You don't even seem as mad about it as you were a week ago."

Lily bit her lip. She hadn't told Daniel (or anyone else) about James apologizing to her, and she especially hadn't told him what James had said to her at the party the other night.

Since he had apologized, she had felt slightly less angry, so slightly less angry that she didn't really feel up to the whole revenge thing anymore.

Sighing, she quickly told Daniel everything that had happened and been said. When she told him that James had said he loved her, he didn't even flinch. Apparently, this was no surprise to him.

"So..." Daniel said when she was finished, "I _was_ right, he _does_ like you."

Lily propped her chin on her palm. "He says its love."

Daniel nodded. They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Right," Daniel said standing up, "so, good luck with that."

"What!" Lily stood up in front of him. "You have to help me! Tell me what to do!"

Daniel sighed as he pushed past her. They started walking out of the great hall into the crowded and busy entrance hall as he spoke. "Lily, I can't tell you what to do; this is something that you have to figure out for yourself."

"But...how?"

They pushed themselves through the crowd and out onto the snow covered lawn toward the train station. When they were finally out of ear shot from the rest of the students, Daniel answered her.

"I don't know how to deal with something like this, Lily, it's never happened to me. Just ask yourself, and think long and hard about your answer, do you love James back?"

"No, I don-"

Daniel held a hand up in front of her. "Don't answer that _now_. Spend Christmas with him and then give me your answer."

Lily scoffed at him. "You think I'm going to fall in love with James Potter in eight days?"

Daniel didn't seem deterred by her response in the least. "Like I said, I know you too well, Lily Evans."

Finally they were at the train station. Looking around, Lily was relieved to see that James had taken care of everything in Gryffindor tower like she had asked him too. He was several feet away from them, helping the students with lugging their trunks onto the train.

Lily went to do the same, and twenty minutes later, everyone was on and the train was ready to leave. Lily went for one last hug from Daniel who yelled into her ear over the train's loud whistle.

"Promise me something," he waited for her to nod until he continued, "be nice to James and Sirius."

As the train started to move, Lily shoved Daniel back on without answering him. Instead, she smiled and waved until he was out of sight. At least she had one thing strait. It was probably a better idea to be nice to James and Sirius during Christmas. After all, they were the only people she was spending it with.

Lily jumped when she found an arm thrown around her shoulders. She looked over at Sirius, who had James under his other arm.

"So, it's just us," Sirius grinned at them, and Lily could see a familiar mischievous glint in his eye, "What do you guys want to do first?"

Be nice to James and Sirius Daniel had said. If she had to spend Christmas with these two, she had better make the best of it.

"Let's go to the three broomsticks and get something warm to drink," she suggested.

Sirius and James both looked at her with lifted eyebrows for a moment. But soon it had passed and they were on their way to Hogsmeade, stuck under Sirius's warm arms.

A/N: Thanks to: **I am me, Luna's Best Friend: **Yeah, I know about the butterbeer, but I didn't want to say that they brought in a case of whiskey, lol. And I have no idea what the crap James is, everyone always says something different so I just put what I wanted. Thanks yo!,

**Deannasmith, wishfuldreams11, Sterling Fire Kittie, luvvRemus, EmeraldLily06, Rider Arya Svit-kona, Messrs Padfoot and Prongs, MissMarauder4487, and miss-cutie-pie-snugalisious**!

Yay, I got more reviewers! I looove reviews so please give me more! Lol, thanks for reading!

-Elvenmuggle


	10. December 18

**December eighteenth**

It was strange not to be woken by the sound of four other girls fighting over the bathroom in the morning, and Lily was enjoying every minute of it. The sun was heavy on her eyelids for a moment, only to be blocked out by thick, gray clouds the next.

She could smell the winter air forcing itself through the window next to her bed, and she breathed in its cool, crisp scent.

Memories of the day before came to her mind and she rolled over onto her side with a contented sigh.

It actually hadn't been that bad hanging out with James and Sirius for a day. They had gone to The Three Broomsticks and Honeydukes, where both boys had tried a free sample of a newer version of Honeydukes' famous chocolate and loved it.

Lily had decided to buy them both a large box of this new chocolate for both of them. Both of them had loved it, and she had been getting into that holiday feeling where you just wanted to give everyone something.

But soon she had regretted it. James and Sirius were practically bouncing off of the walls a few minutes after they had eaten the chocolate.

Of course, she herself had also eaten a sample of chocolate and was soon bouncing away with them. It had a strange affect on them...All Lily could remember was laughing--ALOT. And she could also remember James saying to her: "Tomorrow, we probably won't even remember most of what we've talked about, we'll just remember laughing so much and this moment right now."

Freaky chocolate...Lily wondered if they were still giving out free samples...she should go down and warn people that it was inexplicably good, but with a price. And she could use the opportunity to get herself another sample...

Slowly opening her eyes, Lily peered over at her clock. It read nine thirty; she had definitely slept in.

They probably weren't serving breakfast in the great hall anymore, and Lily's empty stomach growled at her to get up and get something to eat, now.

Lily stretched her way out of bed and into the bathroom, trying her best to ignore her aching stomach.

Twenty minutes later, when she was dressed and her stomach refused to wait anymore, Lily walked quickly down the stairs to the common room.

As soon as her foot hit the stone floor at the bottom, there was a loud BANG followed by a cloud of smoke and a long string of profanities coming from what sounded like Sirius.

Lily swiped at the smoke in front of her and squinted through it.

James was sitting in an armchair looking very smug, while Sirius was sitting in a chair opposite him looked rather pissed. On the small table in front of them was a pile of steaming, soot covered cards.

"Exploding snap?" She asked as she swiped at the smoke.

James turned and grinned at her. "Good morning! Yes, and Sirius is getting his ass whooped."

Lily grinned too and turned to Sirius. "All that language over a _game_?"

"We were playing for money, deary." Sirius stood up. "I'm going to get a different game; exploding snap sucks."

Lily and James laughed at Sirius as he walked by and away up the boy's staircase.

James turned and looked at her. Not just looked at her, but he _looked_ at her; if you know what I mean.

She crossed her arms. "What are you looking at, Potter?"

Laughing, he shook his head. "Nothing...you just look very pretty today."

Lily looked down at her old, worn green sweater and jeans she had had since she was thirteen and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Ok..." she looked away. You freak," she muttered to herself quietly.

"What's that?"

Turning quickly, she smiled sweetly at him. "Nothing, I'm going to try to find something to eat."

"Oh," James turned away from and leaned around the chair, reaching for something on the ground. "I already did it." He pulled out a plate full of toast, cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon...the more Lily looked at it, the more food she would find. "I protected it from the exploding snap, so don't worry, and I kept it warm for you."

"But...why would you do that?" Lily eyed the plate of food. "And how much do you think I eat?"

James laughed. "I got everything because I wasn't sure what you liked...and I figured since you were sleeping in, you wouldn't get to have breakfast, so I got it for you."

For whatever reason, this gesture gave Lily that 'warm and toasty' feeling inside. It was as if the term 'warming up to James' was a literal one.

"Thank you," she said quietly as she took the plate from James, "that's really...sweet." For the first time in the seven years that she had known him, Lily actually had nice feeling toward James.

Not liking. Not love. No, no, no...Not that. Ever. That would never, ever happen. Now that she thought about it, the feeling wasn't _that _nice. Nope, not at all. After all that he had done, she wouldn't like him. Except she couldn't remember anything bad that he had ever done at the moment. But she would remember later, and come to her senses!

Lily sat down and bit into her bacon as Sirius came back down the stairs.

They stopped talking for moment to set up the chess board and Lily was left to her thoughts as she munched on her bacon. Lately, she had not enjoyed being left to her thoughts. Mostly because her thoughts told her things that she did not want to hear.

Right now, her head was trying to convince her that maybe James wasn't so bad. She fought to remember things over the years, things that James had done to make her mad.

The mistletoe, her bed collapsing, her enchanted homework, embarrassing her countless times, her green hair...the list went on and on.

But now all her mind wanted to tell her was that James apologized for all that. Her mind wanted to tell her that she had had fun with James yesterday and that he saved her some breakfast when she was starving.

"Alright, Potter, get ready to go down."

Finally, Sirius interrupted her betraying mind.

_"Hm...Why am so against changing my mind about James?"_ Lily thought as she inspected James moving his pawn toward Sirius's end of the board._ "Too bad Daniel isn't here; I could ask him, he would know..."_

Lily excused herself before running back up to her room. She quickly wrote a letter to Daniel asking him why he thought she was against changing her mind about James and asking him how he was doing. It only took her ten minutes to get down to owlery, mail it, and then get back up to Gryffindor tower.

The afternoon turned out to be a nice one. Lily beat both James and Sirius in a game of chess each and then attempted to teach them how to play go fish.

Sirius was still basking in his last win at go fish when they were heading down to lunch.

Lily was shocked when they came into the great hall and found that all other tables had been removed save for one. It was probably because she had never stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas that she was shocked by this.

Dumbledore was at the end of the table talking to Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey while chewing on a gingerbread man.

There were only six other students here. Two Slytherin boys Lily didn't know, a girl and boy from Hufflepuff who she was pretty sure were brother and sister, and two other Gryffindors named Cal and Cindy.

Lily, James, and Sirius ate lunch with the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs while the Slytherin's moved away from the rest of to the end of the table.

They didn't stay there for long, however, Professor Dumbledore cheerfully called them back and they sulkily complied.

Lily ate her own lunch in silence while everyone else around her chatted. She wondered when she would get a reply back from Daniel. She had chosen the fastest owl in the owlery to take it to him, so it should be at least twelve hours tops...

She must have missed something during lunch because after, when they were heading back up to their dorm, Sirius and James were trying to convince her to come out with them and have a snowball fight against the other Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors.

It took them a lot of convincing and promising to protect her to finally get her to reluctantly agree to this.

It only took them ten minutes to get ready and to get down to the lawn.

The moment that their feet came off of the stone steps and hit the snow covered grass, a snowball came whizzing right at them.

James and Lily were the only ones who thought to duck, so the snowball ended up smacking Sirius (who at least turned away) on the back of the head.

That's when the battle started. James grabbed Lily's arm and they raced away from Sirius and hid behind a giant oak tree.

Peaking around the tree, Lily and James saw that there didn't seem to be any teams; it was more like everyone was just teaming up on Sirius right now.

"How about you go help Sirius while I started to build up a good supply?" Lily moved away from James, dropped to her knees, and started making snow balls quickly.

James laughed and made a few snowballs himself before running to Sirius's rescue.

They were back surprisingly fast, Lily thought. They panted as they eyed her large pile of perfect snow balls.

"Had practice at this, Lily?" Sirius asked.

"I've had a little practice." It might have been a bit of an understatement, as Lily could remember having a snow ball fight with Daniel pretty much everyday when they were kids. They always teamed up against the other kids in the neighborhood, and they always kicked their butts.

"Right," James nodded, "so, is everyone else making teams, or is it just us?"

"We should ask," Sirius said. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled out. "OI! WHAT ARE THE TEAMS HERE?"

"IT'S ALL OF US AGAINST YOUR TEAM, BLACK!"

"Four on three..." James said.

"No problem," Lily said as she finished another large stack. She stood up. "Where are they?"

"Over behind greenhouse two," Sirius said.

"Ok, so we should carry as much as we can, separate, and close in around them back there."

James and Sirius stared at her for moment. Sirius's mouth was slightly open and both of their eyebrows were furrowed.

"Wow, you take snowball fights really seriously," James said with a touch of admiration in his voice.

The rest of the day (in Lily's opinion) was a lot of fun. Their attack on the others went very well for them, and they ended up winning that round. The others did come back later, however, and got their revenge. But once everyone started throwing snow around, they stopped caring who they hit, and soon everyone had turned on each other.

Lily hated to admit that yet again she had had a nice time with Sirius and James. Of course, this time there had been other people there, so it might not have been them that made her have more fun...Aw, who was she kidding? Sirius and James were the funnest people there today, and for some reason, Lily hated to admit that if they hadn't been there, the day probably wouldn't have been as much fun.

Shortly before the sun started to set behind the clouds, the Hufflepuffs and the other Gryffindors including Sirius complained of wet clothes and went inside.

But Lily had made sure before the snow ball fight had started that her clothes stayed dry with a useful little charm that Professor Flitwick had taught her back in fourth year. When James stayed out with her, she was shocked to see that his clothes were also dry.

"Did you charm your clothes to stay dry, too?" She asked, eyeing his clothes.

"Of course...I told Sirius to do it too, but he said he wanted-" James held up his hands and made little quotation marks with his fingers, "to go through the whole, normal snow ball experience."

Lily snorted. "Wow, he's more weird than I thought..."

Now, Lily did not find it at ALL attractive that James knew how to use his wand. Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. She didn't find it attractive that he was smart enough to think ahead. It wasn't attractive at all. Not one, tiny, itty, bitty, bitty, bit. Smart guys did not attract her, and James was NOT attracting her right now. OK, maybe he was one tiny, itty, bitty, bitty, bit. But that was all!

"What are you thinking?" James asked her.

Lily shook her head to clear her mind. Let's just say it didn't work. "What? Why?"

"You're making this face, like you're concentrating on something...no, it's more like you're--I dunno--battling with your thoughts or something. You do it a lot though."

Hm...What was he talking about? Lily was sure that never 'battled with her thoughts'...

Nevertheless, Lily decided not to argue it. Instead she shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know; I don't remember what I was thinking about."

She moved away and sat down against the enormous tree trunk of the oak tree behind her. "So, James," she asked him as he sat down across from her, "how come you stayed here for Christmas?"

To her surprise, James blushed and looked away. "Er, my parents went to...Ireland to see my sister."

She had the distinct feeling that James was lying. And she hated to think about why he had stayed at Hogwarts (or maybe she should say who he had stayed at Hogwarts for?). She dropped the subject with a shrug.

It was quiet after that. Lily looked away towards the icy lake, but she could feel James eyes on her. It was probably only about ten minutes, but it felt like much longer with the silence.

Finally, Lily decided that she better confirm her dread with James.

She turned to him and finally broke the silence. "Do I really have to kiss you?" She asked with a touch of rudeness. But s_he _was the one that was being forced to kiss someone who didn't like. Not one little bit.

James bit his lip and looked away. "Er...yeah, I think that's the idea of it..."

"You think?"

"Well, Remus made up the spell; I'm not sure how to undo it…" He glanced at her quickly, testing her response.

But Lily ignored him. It was strange; she wanted to keep being mad, but she was sick and tired of being pissed all the time. Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered what it would be like to kiss someone who was in love with you. It would probably be better to also be in love with that person. But she wasn't in love with James. Not at all.

Of course she was still mad about it, she was tired from her long day...Tomorrow she would wake up and be pissed as hell...yes...

James interrupted her thoughts as he stood up. "Lets get some dinner, I'm starved."

* * *

After their quiet supper, a warm bath, another quick game of chess in which she crushed Sirius again, and a warm mug of hot chocolate that James had brought them, Lily was ready for bed. 

But as soon as she closed the door of her dorm, the brown owl that she had sent off earlier that morning landed on her windowsill and started tapping the glass of her window.

Lily immediately sprinted to the window and held it open for the owl who hopped in quickly.

He hooted at her and stuck out his leg towards her. Lily gently pulled the letter off of its leg and held open the window for the owl because it seemed anxious to leave.

Once it was gone, she closed the window and sat on her bed, tearing the letter open as she went.

Lily read quietly to herself.

"Hey Lily, when I saw your letter, I figured you either missed me already, or you must have a question about James. Turns out I was right. Big surprise." Lily shook her head, "Shut up Daniel..." She found her spot and continued quietly to herself.

_**You might not like my answer, but here goes: you don't want to give James a chance for two reasons. One) you're stubborn as a mule; when you know you're right, there is no convincing you otherwise. You think that if you confess to having feelings for James, (don't look at my answer like that, you know I'm right.) that you will be wrong. You have tried to convince yourself so hard that you don't like James that you don't want to tell yourself that you were wrong. **_

_**That brings me to my second reason. Two) you're also afraid of rejection. Somewhere in your mind, you're telling yourself that James is setting you up and even if he wasn't, that it would never work. Sometimes you don't think that you're as pretty as the other girls. You're wrong, and if you don't believe me, ask James what he thinks.**_

_**Now, I'm not going to tell you what I think you should do, and I'm not going to try to predict the future, or predict what James is going to do, but I will say this: I am 99.9 percent sure that James really does love you. Or at least has feelings for you. It's obvious from the way he looks at you.**_

_**By the way, I'm doing fine, and my mom and dad say hi. See you soon,**_

_**Daniel**_

_**PS: I'm thinking of becoming psychologist or something like that...what do you think?**_

_**Daniel**_

She knew he was right. Somehow, Daniel was always right. She was so stubborn, she was fighting herself. Somehow, she had to put a stop to it. Somehow, Lily had to figure out what was right.

Was Daniel right saying that she had feelings for James? Immediately her mind screamed NO at her, but...maybe...just maybe it was wrong...

A/N: Thanks to: **Virginia Forever: **Wow, I totally did not notice that, thank you for pointing it out! I'm going to fix it right now!**, LadyKnightSusan, Rider Arya Svit-kona, Smeckles92, Pappy's Girl, crazy1freak: **Thanks, I couldn't remember which he was, everyone always says something different!**, Messrs Padfoot and Prongs, wishfuldreams11, Deannasmith, The viEns of hIStorY, IluvvRemus, Luna's Best Friend, Izabella Pheonix: **Yes, very much a filler, as was this one. As for your other question...I can't think of an answer so just keep reading please! Lol.**, cali4me92, Sterling Fire Kittie: **No, I didn't name him after Daniel Radcliffe. But yay! I wondered if someone would catch that about Daniel. Thanks!**, and this is my reality.**

Ok guys, I know this chapter was boring as a pile of crap, but I'll make the next one better. Thanks for reading! )

Elvenmuggle


	11. December 21

**December twenty first**

Lily had thought of a new plan. Instead of thinking about it and battling her own thoughts, (which had turned out to be extremely frustrating) she just wouldn't think about it.

She wouldn't think about what Daniel had said, or her uneasy feeling that he was right, or James, or how James had been so sweet the last few days, or how much fun she had with James, or the fact that she felt safe and comfortable when she was with James.

Ugh! There was no point in trying!

That was ALL she ever thought about anymore. It was constantly James, James, James, James, James. And what scared her was that she didn't get tired of it. The more she thought about him, the more she wanted too.

It was all so confusing...First she wanted to think about James, or go see him, but then she felt sick with herself, as if she had done something wrong.

Daniel was right about her. She was too stubborn for her own good.

Ok, time to go see James!

Lily took the steps two at a time down to the common room and immediately felt annoyed with herself. But James was at the bottom waiting for her and she forgot about being annoyed.

Last night they had decided to go to Hogsmeade today. Yes, again.

"Sirius said he was starving and couldn't wait anymore, so he went ahead down...I thought you might like some company."

Her first instinct was to grin at him and say, "Yes, I would like some company, by the way, you're looking very cute today." But Lily bit her lip, getting pissed at herself again. Instead, she tugged one corner of her mouth up in a smile and said, "Sure, thanks."

So they went down to the great hall together, carefully avoiding the mistletoe still floating above their heads.

But Lily did start to wish that he had just gone down without her. It wasn't as if it was a bad walk, it was more due to the fact that she had accidentally brushed up against James's hand at one point and her heart had immediately accelerated. And then, for the rest of the walk down, she had to struggle with herself to keep from 'accidentally' brushing up against him again.

By the time they had reached the great hall, she was so sick with herself that she had lost most of her appetite.

However, Lily did manage to get something in her stomach and it seemed in no time that she, James, and Sirius were walking through the snow towards Hogsmeade.

The little village was already crowded with bustling Christmas shoppers when they arrived.

"So, where are we going first?" Sirius asked them.

James and Sirius didn't seem to have thought about this before hand, but Lily knew where she wanted to go.

"I want to go to that little gift shop, Millie's or Mickey's-"

"Minnie's?" James asked.

Lily nodded. She still hadn't bought a gift for her parents and she had decided to do it today.

The boys shrugged and went along with her to the tiny little red-bricked shop on the corner. It looked exactly as it had the last time. The shelves inside were still as jammed packed, but neatly.

The store itself was also jammed packed, but Lily squeezed her way in anyway.

"I saw you guys in here a few weeks ago, do you know if they have any watches here?" Lily asked James and Sirius, "My dad wants a watch for Christmas."

Sirius nodded and led her over to a small glass case in the corner with about ten watches inside and then walked away.

Lily started wondering to herself, why wasn't there any difference between muggle watches, and magical watches? They were exactly the same; there was nothing special about a magical watch. Or maybe that was because there were no magical watches. Maybe they were only classified as magical watches, because they were made by magic. Or maybe there were tiny little things that were different that you would barely notice, like...maybe the numbers were bigger or darker or--Lily stopped. Her head was starting to hurt and a woman was approaching her from behind the case with a name tag on that announced her as Minnie.

"May I help you?" Minnie asked, smiling gently at her.

Lily bought one of the nicer looking watches in the case (making sure to have it gift wrapped) and then continued to browse through the rest of the tiny shop.

She found James and Sirius looking at a small selection of exploding snap cards.

"Lily, which one?" Sirius turned to her with three different packs in his hands. "This one," he held up one for her to see, "when it explodes, the smoke smells like mint. But this one smells like chocolate, and this one smells like bacon."

Lily crinkled her nose. "Bacon?? That sounds weird...I'd go with the mint."

Sirius put the cards back on the shelf. "I saw something I wanted to look at over there, I'll be right back."

As Sirius walked away, Lily a small wooden box on the shelf across from her caught her eye. She walked around a woman walking by and opened it up.

It was a music box, as she had suspected. There was a tiny ballerina in a tutu spinning around slowly as a pleasant little familiar tune floated up at her.

James leaned over her shoulder took look at the box. "You like music boxes?"

Lily shrugged. "I guess...It's just, my dad gave me _just_ like this when I was about five. I loved it; I went to sleep nearly every night to the music."

"Hm...What happened to it?" James asked.

Lily scoffed as the memory hit her. "My sister threw it out of my bedroom window." She looked at James for his reaction. "I live in a two story house," she added.

James looked appalled by this. "That's horrible! Why would she do that?"

Lily grinned slowly. "You haven't met my sister."

Lily looked back over the music box longingly. She wished she could buy it, but it seemed expensive and she didn't have that much money on her right now. Maybe she would come back later...

"Are you guys finished?" Sirius seemed to have appeared out of no where.

"Yeah," Lily nodded, "I think I'm going to send my mom some butterbeer, I've told her about it and she said she wanted to try some..."

"Ok," James cut in, "you guys go ahead, I'm going to buy a few more of these," he motioned toward the exploding snap cards, "Sirius wears them out way too fast."

"I do not!" Sirius snapped mockingly, "How dare you hurt me like this, James Potter!"

He turned and attempted to march away through the thick crowd. James started picking up the cards, so Lily followed Sirius out the door.

"You've got me wanting some butterbeer now, so let's go to The Three Broomsticks and get me one and you can pick up one of those gift baskets for your mom." Sirius said quickly.

"Sounds good to-" Lily started but Sirius was already walking away from her.

She resisted the urge to throw something at him and followed. Little white snow flakes started falling around her as she walked so she started walking faster, thinking of the warmth of The Three Broomsticks.

Rosemerta must have put some sort of warming charm on the place, because as soon as she walked in, Lily immediately felt warm from head to toe. She followed Sirius up to the counter trying not to laugh as he started to fix his hair, most probably for Rosemerta.

Speaking of which, she must have heard their footsteps because she came around from the back.

"Good morning, you're my first customers today; I just opened about ten seconds ago."

A slow grin spread across Sirius's face. He leaned forward on his elbows onto the counter. "Wow, that's like it was meant to be...Do you believe in fate?"

"No. What will ya' have?"

Sirius frowned. "Two butterbeers and one of those gift baskets," he muttered.

But Rosemerta heard him anyway and went to fetch their order.

Lily leaned up against the counter next to Sirius. "_Yeah right_, I had you wanting _butterbeer_," she muttered at him.

He glared over at her as Rosemerta appeared with their order.

Sirius paid and they chose a table as far away from the door as possible. They quietly sipped at their drinks for a while as the pub slowly filled up around them.

"Hey Lily," Sirius asked suddenly, "have you ever seen a donkey?"

Lily blinked. "No...Only on TV."

"What's TV?"

So for the next ten minutes, Lily explained to Sirius what a TV was. He seemed very interested by the whole thing. He kept asking her how they did it, and she kept trying to tell him, which led her to explain what electron beams, satellites, and miles of cable were and what they did.

"I totally want to see that." Sirius said amazed.

"See what?" James had arrived with his own fresh butterbeer in hand.

"TV!" Sirius said excitedly. "What took you so long?"

"Dude, did you see the crowd?"

Sirius nodded. "Right...You guys want to go to Zonko's after this?"

"Yeah," James said, "we need to get Remus and Peter a gift."

For the rest of their time there, Sirius gave James what Lily could best describe as the 'crapped up' version of how TV works. James didn't seem to be following Sirius's version at all but didn't say anything about it.

As much as she dreaded leaving such a warm cozy place, Lily followed Sirius and James out of the door when it was time to go.

"You guys go ahead to Zonko's, I'm going to mail these off at the post office," she held up her presents.

The post office was jammed though when she arrived and she ended up waiting for twenty minutes for a nicer owl.

But finally her presents were sent off and she was free to join Sirius and James again. How strange...about a month ago, Lily would never have guessed that she would be walking through Hogsmeade looking for Sirius Black and James Potter, actually wanting to hang out with them. They were fun to hang out with.

Oh my. Lily stopped. She hadn't argued with herself that time! She smiled; finally she could admit at least that.

What was she saying? That was all she had to admit to herself. There was nothing else. She didn't have any sort of feelings that weren't friend related toward anyone. Nope, she didn't. Not one feeling. There would be no more admitting anything else to herself because there was nothing else to admit. No way, not one. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no--ok, maybe one! But...crap, she couldn't think of anything to say.

Instead, she walked towards Zonko's, but James and Sirius ran out of Honeydukes at her.

"Let's go back to the castle for some lunch," James said quickly.

"Evil free samples! Evil free samples!" Sirius yelled at Honeydukes behind him.

"Why? What did you two do?"

James shrugged. "Nothing illegal, they just gave up these-"

"Evil free samples!" Sirius said to her.

"-And they're supposed to make you really hungry." James put an arm around his stomach.

Lily sighed. "Fine, ok, let's go."

The boys said they were too hungry to walk fast, so they walked slower than normal back onto the Hogwarts grounds with their arms around their stomachs.

Lily looked at the lake through the falling snow as they passed. It was frozen over with a light layer of ice and she could just make out the Giant Squid swimming past underneath.

Suddenly, something very strange happened.

An extremely heavy wind whooshed at them. James nearly fell over onto Sirius, who bumped into Lily. Too bad no one was next to Lily for her to bump into. Can you guess it? Yes.

She fell straight toward the frozen lake. That ice was too thin to catch her, it was going to break, and Lily knew it. The only thing she had time to do was squeeze her eyes shut tightly and suck in a deep breath.

Of course, she was right. She fell right through the ice. But that wasn't what she was thinking about. All she could think about now was the pain. Horrible pain, like knives stabbing her all over and she couldn't stop it.

Up on the surface, James stood up, his face paler than the snow. "Oh god."

He didn't even think about it, he ripped off his heavy cloak. Behind him, he could hear Sirius shouting, "Incendio!" At the ice and it melted for him. "Wait!" Sirius yelled. He grabbed James's arm and rapped him hard on the head with his wand. "It'll keep you warm, go!"

But James was already racing for the water. He jumped in.

He instantly spotted Lily about ten feet below him. She looked like she was trying to kick her legs, but was growing tired.

Swimming quickly toward her, James finally reached her, wrapped his arm around her waist, and started dragging her upward, back to the surface.

Once they broke through the surface, Sirius was there, helping him carry Lily back up. She was shaking violently.

"We've got to take her to the hospital wing." Sirius said once he caught sight of her.

James nodded and lifted her into his arms. "Let's go."

A/N: Thanks to: **Sterling Fire Kittie, LazyBoyGilmore, Harrypotterfan105, Messrs Padfoot and Prongs, Deannasmith, cali4me92, Kira2667, Rider Arya Svit-kona, and ShakeIt-Don'tBreakIt!**

Ok guys, two more chapters to go and that's it. And I'm not doing a sequel so don't ask! A sequel would be stupid, there would be no point to it anyway.

I'm trying to have it done by Christmas so um...keep reading! And reviewing of course...

Thanks for reading:)

-Elvenmuggle


	12. December 24

**December twenty fourth**

It was all a horrible memory now, but Lily couldn't help replaying it over and over in her head. Her nightmares also consisted of drowning in freezing water. Not being able to move or breath and the only thing on her mind being the pain.

Of course, her dreams never ended with James jumping in after her and pulling her back up to the surface, and then carrying her all the way up to the hospital wing.

She had been so out of it, all she could think about was the pain, that she barely remembered most of that. The memory that seemed to stick with her the most (other than the feeling of knives stabbing her all over) was when they had finally reached the hospital wing and James had argued with Madam Pomfrey because she kept trying to make him leave.

Finally, the nurse had forced both James and Sirius out.

Lily remembered nothing after that. She woke up the next day, and Madam Pomfrey told her that everything was fine, except that she had hit the ice too hard, and that little bits of it had found its way into her skin all over.

"If Mr. Potter and Mr. Black hadn't been there, I dread to think of what might have happened," the nurse told her.

So...they had saved her life. Lily couldn't bring herself to argue with own head anymore. Or at least at the moment...That was not arguable. If James had been un likeable to her before, then it still would have been different now.

James wasn't...sooo bad. Hey! And she thought that without flinching!

It must be early in the morning. And I mean early. Like four or five.

Lily reached for her watch on the bedside table and squinted at it. She was right, it was four thirty now. Sighing, she lay back down on her pillow. The hospital wing was creepy at night.

The only light was coming from the half moon outside her tiny window. She wished she was back in her own bed, in her own un-creepy room, but Madam Pomfrey had insisted that she stay here at least one more day.

Lily sighed. Only four more hours to go. And then she could get back to Gryffindor tower and hang with James again. Still no flinching!

Not that she hadn't been hanging out with James. He and Sirius spent all day here. They had somehow convinced Madam Pomfrey to let them stay. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall had also been by to see her, as did the last two remaining Gryffindors, Cal and Cindy. The Hufflepuff siblings, whose names turned out to be John and Martha, also came by to see her.

Of course, the thing she wanted to say most to James and Sirius (that being thank you of course), was never said. She kept trying to find an opening, but Sirius didn't want to stop talking. Not that she minded though, he was trying to make her laugh, and it was working.

James...James was being...wonderful. Whoa, just a little squirm, but at least no flinching!

He started bringing her Christmas cookies and treats from the kitchens, but Madam Pomfrey said it was unhealthy and that they would get crumbs everywhere. So he snuck them in instead.

And, he got Cindy to break into her room and bring her changes of fresh clothes. He had even snuck her out in the middle of the night under his invisibility cloak so that she could go take a warm bath in the nice prefect's bathroom instead of having to use the icky hospital shower. And I know what you're thinking; James stayed outside in the hall, the _whole_ time, so there.

This entire thing all put together, made her...like him more than she did already. Yep, that was all. Daniel was wrong; she was _not_ falling in love. And she wasn't going to. She wasn't. No, no, no. She didn't love James at all. Not one tiny little drop. Nope. You're wrong, she wasn't. Not at all, and it wouldn't happen. She wasn't falling in love with James Potter! Ok, maybe a little bit. But only because he was being so damn nice!

Great, now it was back to arguing with herself again. She wished Daniel were here. Apparently, she was an open book to him. He would know exactly what she wanted.

And he was right. After everything that had happened in the past few days, she was sure of it now. James Potter did love her. But...how could she really tell? She had never done this before, she might be wrong...

Maybe she should just ask James? Ha! Yeeaah, she could see herself actually doing _that_.

But regardless if anyone loved anybody, Lily knew that she was still going to have to kiss James at lunchtime on Christmas day. For some reason that _almost_ made her mad, she didn't get angry every time she thought about that now. Now, it was more like...anticipation?

Uh oh, she flinched.

Lily reached over for her watch and squinted at it again. She had better get some sleep so that she didn't look like crap in the morning. Madam Pomfrey would probably make her stay another night.

Ok...so now the question was, how could she get to sleep when all she could think about was James? It was James's hair, and his smile, and the feeling he made her get every time she was around him. Ah! Stop!

Suddenly, Lily was back in the common room talking to James and Sirius. Was this real? For wild moment, she thought that it was, but then the next, James and Sirius turned into giant, hairy gorillas and started jumping on the tables and beating their chests while making wild noises at her.

Lily woke with a start and nearly screamed when she found Madam Pomfrey leaning over her.

"Ms. Evans, are you alright?"

Lily nodded.

"Are you sure? I'm not going to need to keep you another day, am I?"

"No!" Lily shouted. She immediately started blushing when she saw the nurse's disapproving look. "Ma'am..."

"Ok, well your skin is healed completely, you've had plenty of rest, and your concussion was very, very mild-"

"What?" Lily interrupted, "I had a concussion?"

The nurse gave her a stern look over the tops of her glasses. "Ms. Evans, are you _sure_ you're alright?"

Lily nodded vehemently. "Yes, I'm fine, sorry, I forgot."

Yeah right, it was probably because every time Madam Pomfrey would speak to her, Sirius would make funny faces behind her back.

Madam Pomfrey gave her that stern look for another moment before turning away. When she turned back, she was handing Lily her bag of clothes James had brought her. "Ok, but I want you to take it easy, you here me?" Lily nodded again. "And absolutely no going outside. Stay indoors."

Lily kept nodding. "Yes, Ma'am I will, I promise."

The nurse finally walked away and Lily got dressed quickly, packing up her things as fast as she could. Why? Because. She isn't rushing to see anyone, so don't think that she is.

It didn't shock her at all that as soon as she was about to walk out of the door, James and Sirius came walking in.

"Yay, now you can come play exploding snap with me!" Sirius grinned and ripped her bag from her hands. "James won't play with me," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth at her as they walked out of the door together.

But James had heard anyway, he was standing right next to him after all. "Well maybe I would play with you if you didn't pitch a fit every time you lost!"

Sirius scoffed at him. "I do not pitch fits!"

The two boys didn't notice Lily as she started giggling in between them.

"Sirius, you threw a chair at me last time!"

Lily jerked her head over at Sirius. "You threw a chair at him?!"

Sirius shook his head. "Nooo...I was...throwing it at the wall, and it slipped and flew at James."

Lily started giggling again as James and Sirius kept arguing all the way down to the great hall.

Breakfast was as normal as ever. Except everyone was greeting her back now, and Professor Dumbledore made everyone pick their favorite Christmas carol, and then invited them to sing it. Everyone declined, except for Sirius, (who James had dared) who stood up and sang Oh Christmas Tree. But he only knew the first three lines and after the second, 'Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,' he drifted off and just sat back down, amid a round of crappy applause. Except for Professor Dumbledore who described Sirius's singing as 'delightful'.

After breakfast, Sirius, James, and Lily went back up the common room, the whole way James and Lily singing the first three lines of Oh Christmas Tree over and over again.

As soon as they entered the common room, Sirius screamed, "Exploding snap!" and started to make his way to the boy's staircase but Lily stopped him.

"Wait, I just want to say er, thanks, for er...well, you know, for saving me..."

She leaned forward and lightly kissed Sirius on the cheek. He stared at her for a moment as if waiting for her to say something else. "You're very welcome. Can I go get exploding snap now?"

Lily sighed. "Fine!"

As Sirius turned and ran away, she turned toward James. "And thank you too."

She leaned forward. She had been thinking about it during breakfast. Instead of thanking him with a kiss on the cheek, she could just thank him with a kiss on the lips, and break the spell while she was at it. This had nothing to do with her liking him. Because she didn't.

James's eyes widened as he realized what she was doing.

"What! Wait! What?" He stuttered and backed up.

Lily stopped. "What?"

"What are you doing?" He asked her frantically. Hm...Why was his voice suddenly so squeaky?

"I figured I would thank you this way." She stared at him. "Instead of being forced..."

James nodded. "Oh, yeah, about that," he had seemed to calm down some, but his voice was still squeaky, "I...I remember."

Lily shook her head, trying to figure out what he was talking about. "I'm...not following."

James bit his lip. "I...remember that night...that night I got drunk. I remember what I said."

Lily froze. THAT was NOT what she had been expecting to hear at all. That wasn't even close to it. Put the whole galaxy between whatever it was she thought he was going to say, and THAT and you still wouldn't be close. THAT was just...just...Oh God, was this really happening?

"And..."James looked up at her hesitantly. "It's true. Every bit of it. I'm in love with you Lily Evans and I have been for a very long time." He didn't pause to look at her frozen shock, but plowed on instead. "And I don't want to make you kiss me because you have to. I'm sorry, I'm the one who put up the mistletoe, and now I'm going to take it down. I was telling the truth though, I'm not sure how to reverse the spell, but I'll figure it out, I will."

Now Lily understood why his voice was so squeaky. She was sure that hers was going to be too if she tried to speak. But she had too. This was...was...she didn't have any words for once. Not now anyway, her brain was momentarily frozen.

And he admitted it. The mistletoe, she meant. And he was going to take it down? Awww...And he really did love her? Oh my...

Lily nodded slowly. "Oookaayy...that's really er..."

James attempted a small grin. "You don't have to answer me now, if you don't want. You can think about it for a while. And, I'm not asking you to say I love you back, I just wanted you to know how I felt..."

Lily nodded again. "Right, ok...I will get back to you on that."

James grinned. "Good."

They stood silently for a moment.

"Why is it taking Sirius so long?" Lily finally asked.

James snorted. "I hid his stupid cards."

Lily started laughing quietly again with James until Sirius came back down the stairs.

"Funny," Sirius shook his head. "I don't remember leaving them under the rug..."

Lily and James looked at each other and burst into a fit of laughter again. Sirius lifted an eyebrow over at them, but just shrugged and sat down, pulling the cards out of the box.

Hm, another nice moment with James. Wait, when was the last time she didn't have one of those?

Lily stopped laughing at this thought and sat down across from Sirius.

But James didn't sit down, he stayed standing up. "You guys go ahead and do that, I'm going to go do...something, I'll be back later."

"Yeah, whatever," Sirius waved him away.

But Lily watched him go. What did he have to do? Oh...he was going to take down the mistletoe. Awww...

NO! James Potter was not worth an awww! He, he...she couldn't think of anything wrong with him anymore. Except, he _used_ to be a pain in the you know what, but that sounded so lame now.

Ok, so she...she...she liked him. But that was it. She couldn't help that he had suddenly become a likeable person! But Daniel was wrong, wrong, wrong! She did not love him, and she wasn't falling in love with him. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-

"You're turn," Sirius cut into her thoughts.

Lily nodded. "Right, ok..." She picked up a card and took a deep breath. No more thinking about James right now, it made her too nervous...

Meanwhile, outside of the portrait hole, James was bent double, leaning up against the wall for support and trying not to hyperventilate. He could not believe he had actually just done that. Oh God...

A/N: Thanks to: **Messrs Padfoot and Prongs, Kira2667, 5redroses, kate454, Deannasmith, Pirate Cowgirl Witch, CommonSenseless24, Rider Arya Svit-kona, Sterling Fire Kittie, IluvvRemus, IzaBella Pheonix, books-are-half-my-life, and Luna's Best Friend.**

One more chapter after this and we're done! Yay! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this one, I enjoyed writing it, I think it was one of my favorites. I know it was extremely short, but I really don't care…Haha, anyhoo, Thanks for reading!

-Elvenmuggle


	13. Christmas

**Christmas**

Dong, dong, dong...The big clock in the Gryffindor common room struck twelve at midnight.

Sirius grinned over at Lily from his armchair opposite hers. "Merry Christmas, Lily."

Lily smiled back. "Merry Christmas, Sirius."

She turned back to gaze into the fire, wondering what James was doing right now. She hadn't seen him all day. Well, not since early that afternoon when he had said I love you to her...and then she saw him at dinner too, but briefly.

He had been gone all day taking care of the mistletoe, just as he said he would be. Lily smiled to herself thinking about it. It was just so sweet...

While James had been doing that, Sirius had kept Lily here in the common room all day playing exploding snap, chess, and go fish. She had even managed to teach him monopoly, which he hated with every fiber of his being, and had even tried to throw her board into the fire.

Sirius stood up and stretched, yawning as he went. "Alright, I'm going to bed, night night." He walked away up the boy's stairs as Lily wished him goodnight.

She had wanted to wait for James to get back so she could see if he had had any success with the mistletoe, but it was midnight and she was getting tired, so Lily stood up and stretched.

Suddenly, the portrait hole opened and James walked in with one giant box. He walked over and placed it on the table next to her.

James looked at her while chewing on his bottom lip. He smiled sheepishly. "Er...I er, I tried _everything_...and I've only gotten to one conclusion that makes sense: they're pretty much indestructible."

Lily lifted an eyebrow at him. Of course, she had expected no less, especially from the marauders. When James had left earlier that day, she wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do it, but...it was totally the thought that counted.

James looked a bit scared. Hm...Lily wondered if she had scared him before. Well, she _had_ turned his face upside down now that she thought about it...

This time, she just shrugged. "I figured as much."

James nodded. "Yeah...I sent Remus a letter and asked him if there were any other counter curses, but he said no." He smiled sheepishly again. "I'm sorry."

Lily smiled at him. He was so cute when he was being all sheepish like this and--no he wasn't!

Oh dear, she was going to kiss James tomorrow. Or, she could kiss him now! To get it over with of course...she wasn't looking forward to it. So don't think she is. She's not not not! Nooooo. Not at all. Not one little bit. Nope. Ok...maybe she was looking forward to it. A little bit...or...a lot. Oh my...

James sank into an armchair, keeping his eyes on her face.

"What are you looking at?" Lily looked away; this was a bit uncomfortable.

"You're doing that thing again."

Lily sighed. "What thing?"

"Where you look like you're fighting with your head." James grinned. "When you do it you bite the corner of you mouth like this," James demonstrated for her, "and you tilt one eyebrow up just slightly..."

Lily was just thinking how stupid she must look when she did this when James said, "Don't worry about it though, I like when you do it, you look cute."

This guy had weird taste.

"Right, ok..." Lily nodded. "I'm heading to bed then..."

"Oh wait!" James stood up, "I want to give you your present, it's Christmas now!"

Lily laughed. "Ok."

While he was gone, Lily wondered what he might have gotten her. Nothing came to her mind at once...he always wanted to go to Zonko's, but what would he have bought her in there?

A few moments later, James was coming back down the stairs.

"Here you go," He said when he reached her and handed over a messily wrapped box.

Some of might think of it as childish, but it's the only way to open a present. She tore at the wrapping and tossed it away piece by piece. James started laughing.

When she finally tore off the paper, she pulled the box open. And nearly cried.

Inside was the pretty wooden music box she had admired with James at the gift shop in Hogsmeade. The one just like her father had given her years ago.

It was like he had given her a piece of her father back. That sounded weird, but it was the only way she could think to describe the feeling.

Lily wanted to say thank you but she didn't trust her throat just yet so she smiled at him and nodded.

He seemed to get the point though and smiled. "You're welcome."

Lily abandoned her battling thoughts and leaned into him, wrapping an arm around him in an embrace.

"Thanks," she mumbled into his shirt.

James chest shook slightly underneath her when he laughed softly. "You're welcome." He wrapped his arms around her.

Mmmmm, James smelled nice. Something like a mix of cinnamon sticks and apples. Lily almost giggled wondering why he smelled like this. Maybe he had some kind of home-made cologne…

The thought almost made her giggle again--wait one second, was James smelling her hair??

Lily pulled back from him. "Thanks, I really, really appreciate it."

James smiled. "Good, I thought you would."

Oh good grief, and she had only gotten him chocolates. Lily picked up the box carefully.

"Ok, I'm heading to bed." She walked toward the stairs.

"Lily?"

Lily turned. "Yeah?"

James looked like he was about to say something, but changed his mind and smiled. "Merry Christmas."

Lily smiled back at him. "Merry Christmas."

She ran up to her room.

What was this guy doing to her??? She had a freakishly strong urge to go back down and hug him again. And...maybe smell him one more time...and then maybe, just maybe, she could get that kiss over with, so she wouldn't be forced into it of course...

Oh man, this was bad...But wait, why was it bad again? James was sweet, he was funny, and he always made her feel good...but no! No, no no! It was bad because...because...of...of stuff...

Ok, ok, let's think this over...

Lily carefully set down the music box on the table next to the bed and then pulled out parchment, quill, and ink from her trunk. She was going to make a pro and con list. She couldn't believe that she hadn't already made one, she always made one when she couldn't decide on something.

"Ok, let's see..." Lily sat cross legged on her bed and looked down at the blank parchment. "Let's make the pros first..."

_**1. He just gave you one of the best presents you've ever received.**_

_**2. He smells good.**_

_**3. He saved your life.**_

_**4. He's spent everyday with you for a week.**_

_**5. He apologized.**_

_**6. He loves you**_

_**7. He's really pretty...**_

The list went on and on. When it came to make the cons, Lily found herself studying the parchment for a while.

Hm...Cons...She couldn't say, 'he used to be a butt munch' because he had apologized. To her, that wiped it away. Mostly...

Lily dropped her quill and picked up her music box instead. She grinned when she wound it up and the familiar music wafted up at her.

Picking up her quill again, she stared at the blank space underneath the headline, 'cons'. Her eyes grew heavy and her head ached so she lay down and continued to stare at the parchment.

Her eyes were so heavy...she yawned and closed them for a moment...and the next thing she knew, she was waking up and it was morning.

It was Christmas! Lily grinned at the thought and looked out at the thickly falling snow outside of her window. Of course, it had been Christmas before she went to bed, but that wasn't the same! No, _now_ it was Christmas.

Lily stretched and then quickly pulled herself up and peaked over the end of her bed. There was a pile of presents at the end that made her grin.

Grabbing the first one from Daniel, she ripped it open.

All of her presents were good, and she loved them all, but Lily couldn't help thinking that James's present was the best one.

When she had finished, Lily got up, dressed and then went down to the common room, grabbing James and Sirius's presents on the way out the door.

When she entered the common room, she looked over and found the two boys stepping off of the staircase at the same time that she was.

"Merry Christmas," Sirius greeted her. "Hey, think fast!"

He threw a crazily wrapped present at her quickly. Lily wanted to scream, but instead, she dropped the presents she had with her and just in time, caught Sirius's present neatly in her arms.

"Oh my God, you nearly took her head off!" James gasped. He looked over at her with an impressed look on his face. "Nice catch by the way, you could have been a Gryffindor chaser."

"Thanks, here," she threw a present at Sirius as hard as she could who also caught it right before it hit his face. "And here you go," she handed James his present.

"Ok, all at the same time?" Sirius asked.

They all agreed and started ripping at the paper.

Lily had to repress a squeal from escaping. Yay! Chocolate! And not just any chocolate, but the scary chocolate they had tried that day in Hogsmeade that had made them so hyper.

Sirius and James both looked as happy as she did.

"So, we got each other the same thing...I almost ate yours," Sirius said.

"Ha, me too...I can't wait to eat this again." Lily grinned at the thought.

"Speaking of eating, I'm hungry, let's get some breakfast," James cut in.

They put their chocolates on a table near them and then headed down to breakfast. The whole way, Lily thought of when she would get to eat her chocolate, and remembered the wonderful time she had had the last time she had eaten some.

Oh my gosh, this chocolate had a strong hold over her. It was very disturbing...

As they walked, Lily found herself walking next to James and this time, she didn't mind a bit that her arm kept brushing up against his. Their hands kept bumping into each other, but she didn't pull away this time. Hm...Must be the chocolate. Though she hadn't had any today, it still had a strong hold on her. Yes...that was it.

They were the first ones in the great hall, and no one came in until they were nearly finished. Dumbledore walked in with a Santa hat on, something Lily for some reason couldn't get over.

They finished soon after Professor McGonagall walked in the door and walked back to the common room.

What time was it? Lily looked down at her watch. Nine O' clock...a few hours until lunchtime...Lily gulped nervously. She wasn't excited about the kiss though, no, not her, she was just nervous was all...

Ok, ok...maybe she did like him...a lot...But, who couldn't?

Lily looked over at James as they stopped at the portrait hole. But he didn't notice her looking and went in. She followed him inside.

"Exploding snap!" Sirius yelled as soon as they entered.

James rolled his eyes. "Oh good grief, what is it with you and exploding snap?"

Lily laughed. Honestly, Sirius had almost gotten her just as addicted, but she would never tell him.

"Shut up, James, exploding snap is far out, more far out than you'll ever be!" Sirius ran up the stairs to get his cards.

Lily sat down on the sofa. "Oooh, burned!"

James looked around at her with a questioning look.

Lily shrugged. "You really shouldn't mess with exploding snap; Sirius might kill you in your sleep."

James laughed and sat down next to her. Mmmm, his smell drifted over to her and she breathed it in.

Sirius ran back down the stairs and sat down opposite them. As he was pulling out the cards, he asked them, "Hey, you guys. Isn't it weird that this whole week we haven't ever seen Cal and Cindy in the common room? We see them at meals, but that's about it in a day."

James lifted his eyebrows. "Hm, I never thought of that...what do you think they're doing?..." He drifted off and at the same time all three of their gazes drifted over toward the staircases.

They all seemed to be fixated by this and stared at the staircases for a long, quiet moment.

James snapped out of it first. "Ooookaayyy...lets er, let's play now. Please."

They played what turned out to be a very short game in which Sirius creamed both James and Lily. Then they played another game, and another game. Then they forced Sirius away from exploding snap for a moment to play go fish.

Though this whole time she kept a cool demeanor, Lily kept glancing over at the giant clock that hung on the wall. Her stomach started tying itself in knots with butterflies flying all around the knots and getting tangled up in the mess.

It seemed like in no time that it the clock struck eleven. Just an hour and a half to go until she would be forced...maybe she should just do it. Lily looked over at James. But Sirius was here. She did not want to kiss James in front of Sirius.

Finally, she excused herself and went up to her room.

"Whew, ok, let's just calm down..." Lily ran her hands through her hair. "This is stupid; it's just a kiss..."

Lily had a strong urge to freshen her breath and fix her hair...maybe put on some lip gloss, but she repressed it. WHY should she do all that? To look good for James? No, because she didn't want to. She didn't care if he thought she was pretty. Very much...

This was all so confusing!

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Lily snapped at herself.

She liked James, but she didn't want to like James.

Tap, tap, tap.

Lily looked over at her window to see a brown owl tapping on the glass. She went over and let it in. Hm, wonder who it's from...

All it said on the outside was her name, but she knew the writing. Daniel.

Pulling it out of its envelope, Lily unfolded it and started reading.

_**Hey Lily, it's your old pal, Daniel. You will probably get this tomorrow so Merry Christmas! **_

_**I was just thinking of you and realized something. You need more help. I know, weird, but like I've said before, I know you all too well, and I always know what you're thinking. **_

_**Right now, you're probably battling with yourself. I've got to go soon so I'll make this quick and give you a few questions that you need to answer. TRUTHFULLY. Answer the first thing that comes to your mind, got it? Ok, would you take a bullet for James?**_

Lily's automatic answer was yes. Actually, she said, "Of course, who wouldn't?"

_**Imagine a life where the last time you saw James, was just a few moments ago where I know you were before you ripped yourself away from him to read this. Sound nice?**_

Lily thought of James down in the common room with Sirius. He was so happy...and she was too when she was with him. Of course her answer was no. She looked down at paper and was startled by the last question.

_**Do you love James Potter?**_

"Yes." Lily snapped her mouth shut. No...No...No...

But...

Maybe...

And then suddenly it hit her like a ton of bricks. She loved James.

It seemed so simple now. It was as if she wore glasses, and they were dirty before, but someone wiped them clean. Daniel wiped them clean.

Yay! She was clean and she loved James!

Lily bounced up out of her seat and ran to her bed. She searched for a moment and then came back up with the pro and con list. The con side was still white as the snow outside of her window.

James was perfect, at least perfect for her. How did she not see it before? Her mind was so weird...

Lily started giggling and jumping up and down. This was soooo fun. Who knew that love was so fun? Love, love, love, love, love, love!

Now she should tell him.

Lily stopped jumping. That was scary. But...wait a minute...Yay! James loved her too!

Yes, freakishly enough, she had forgotten. This was exciting.

Lily took a deep breath and straightened her hair in the mirror before jumping out of the door, taking the steps two at a time.

But when she reached the common room, James wasn't there. Sirius sat alone at the table, shuffling a deck of cards. For some reason, this startled her.

"Where's James?" She asked Sirius quickly.

Sirius looked around at her. "Oh, he went to the kitchen to get us some hot chocolate, I told him to get the little marshmallows, I hope he remembers--where are you going?"

All Lily had heard was kitchen and she was dashing across the common room for the portrait hole. She yelled over her shoulder a Sirius, "The kitchen, I'll be back!"

She tried to contain her excitement, but did a horrible job at it as she started running along the corridors, swinging herself around corners, and perilously throwing herself down the stairs.

It seemed to take much longer than it ever had before to reach the entrance hall. But when she hurtled herself down the last staircase and saw him walking towards her heart nearly burst with the excitement she felt.

Lily grinned at him as she walked closer toward him.

James didn't look at all surprised to see her. Instead, he seemed more curious about her appearance. "Why are you grinning like that?"

Finally, she reached him. They both came to a stop, standing two feet apart. There was no other way to say it was there? Should she just spit it out? Yeah!

"I love you too."

James dropped the mugs and they clattered to the ground, but Lily didn't care. He looked more shocked than a...than a...well, he looked really shocked to say the least.

"Really?" His voice was that same squeal again.

Lily grinned. She didn't reply to his answer, or say it again, and she definitely didn't say no. Instead, she stepped forward, closing the distance between them in one step, and pressed her lips against his.

James reacted instantly. He wrapped both of arms around her and moved his lips against her.

Yes, Lily loves James now. And James loves Lily. There was nothing that could tell Lily that she didn't love James now, not even her own head. Yes, yes, yes. She loved him every little bit. Yep. And that's all she had to say about it.

The End

A/N: Thanks to: **Kira2667, Rider Arya Svit-kona, Legolas' rider**: Thanks! Though I would stay away from the one called 1943, it sucks!, **wishfuldreams11, Jazzyone, and MxAzingxspork!**

Ok, I'm done, I hope you guys enjoyed this last chapter, I looooved writing the part where Lily finally realizes she loves him. So fun...

A big thanks to everyone who read this, and everyone who reviewed! Mwah! That was a kiss if you didn't figure that out...Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope all of your Christmas's go well! And happy New Year also!

Ok, Mwah one more time, and I'm out.

-Elvenmuggle


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